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Council approves demolition contracts; St. Mary’s demolition uncovers asbestos, city seeks monitoring services
Summary
The council approved multiple demolition and site-clearance contracts, including work paid for by the Waterloo Development Corporation, and authorized professional monitoring after asbestos was discovered at the Saint Mary’s demolition site.
The City of Waterloo on Feb. 3 approved several demolition and site-clearance contracts and adopted resolutions to proceed with work that includes both conventional demolition and specialized asbestos-related abatement.
Waterloo Development Corporation (WDC) properties: City staff clarified that WDC owns several properties scheduled for demolition and that the city’s prior agreement is for the city to administer demolition contracts while WDC pays the costs. Eric Schrader, city planner, said the WDC-paid projects include three properties; two were already under contract and the third had delayed because of additional issues.
Bid awards and contracts: Council adopted resolutions awarding portions of contract D2025-01-03P. The council approved awarding part of the work to D.W. Zinsser Company Inc. (Walford, Iowa) for $125,000 (part 1, property at 118 Sycamore Street) and awarding part to Lehman Trucking & Excavating (Waterloo) for $29,164 (part 2, properties at 309 East Second Street and 1103 Commercial Street). Separately, for contract D2025-01-05P the council awarded Lehman Trucking & Excavating $67,341 to perform demolition and site-clearance work at multiple properties including 1335 Mulberry Street and 720 Lincoln Street.
Asbestos discovered at St. Mary’s site; monitoring service authorized: While staff had performed prior asbestos testing, demolition at the St. Mary’s church and school site uncovered additional asbestos-containing materials that testing had not identified. City Planner Eric Schrader and staff said the discovery required additional oversight. Council authorized a professional services agreement with Terracon Consultants Inc. (Cedar Falls) to provide demolition observation and air-quality monitoring related to the St. Mary’s and St. Mary’s Villa demolition projects; the agreement uses an hourly fee schedule and staff estimated the monitoring cost will likely be “in the range of $20,000” though the contract is fee-based rather than a fixed lump sum.
Funding and landfill handling: Staff noted that when material is handled as asbestos-containing (referred to in the meeting as Rackham handling), landfill charges and handling requirements are higher; the observation contract is intended to ensure materials are classified and handled correctly so the city does not incur unnecessary higher costs. Most of the demolition and change orders discussed for the St. Mary’s site are expected to be paid from HUD community-development funds and other grants; a portion of the monitoring fee was described as likely to come from an alternate funding source because HUD funds have limitations.
Why it matters: The discovery of concealed asbestos has delayed work and increased the complexity and cost of demolition. Council action authorizes both the continuation of demolition work on WDC properties and targeted monitoring to ensure compliance with environmental and public-health requirements.
Council votes: The resolutions for the demolition contracts and for the monitoring services passed by roll-call votes; council members present voted in favor of the measures in each instance.
Ending: Staff said they will continue coordination with state environmental regulators and the HUD-administered funding programs while demolition and abatement proceed. Council members asked staff to track costs and consider contractor responsibility where prior testing appears to have missed hazardous material.
