Trustees press contractor and owner’s rep over aquatic center budget, contingency accounting and a $350,000 change order

Carbondale trustees and the town’s owner's representative pressed contractors and staff for clearer, more legible financial reporting and earlier notification of major change orders on the Carbondale Aquatic Center construction project.

Project representatives from Wember and town staff provided a progress update and a revised budget table. Wember’s regional lead, Joe Farstead, said the pool structure is out of the ground, footings and underground infrastructure are in, and key milestones have been reached. The project team and trustees moved quickly into a long discussion about the owner’s contingency, a document trustees said was hard to read and that appeared to include fundraising goals as line items.

Trustees requested a clearer presentation that separates: committed contracts (signed agreements), projected-to-complete estimates, change-order history and a separate contingency log limited to unanticipated items. Several trustees said they were surprised to see the fundraiser target—$900,000 shown on the contingency log—treated in the contingency calculations; Wember and staff said fundraiser expectations had been shown that way to indicate where fundraising revenue would be applied, and agreed to present a more conventional set of tables at the next meeting.

Trustees also discussed a potential construction change order of about $350,000 (PCO No. 2, rev. 2) that Wember said dated to late 2024 and had not previously been brought to the trustees as required by the town’s procurement policy for change orders above $100,000. Trustees sought an explanation and asked that staff ensure future PCOs that exceed procurement thresholds be brought to the board promptly; staff and Wember acknowledged the procurement-policy requirement and apologized that this item had not been presented in advance.

Fundraising and budget figures were discussed in detail. Town staff and the aquatics team said the Let’s Make a Splash capital campaign has raised about $1,660,604 to date against a $2.5 million goal, leaving roughly $840,000 to reach the campaign goal. Staff reported about $330,000 in grant requests are outstanding; if awarded, those would reduce the remaining balance. The town manager and trustees reiterated that if fundraising falls short, the board had previously approved fallback funding sources from town reserves to complete the project, but trustees asked for more transparent monthly tracking of “committed” contracts, change orders, and a simple “balance to complete” figure.

Trustees asked for a site visit for the board and public as soon as it is safe to do so and asked Wember to provide an updated packet with separate change-order logs, a clean contingency ledger, percent complete metrics, and an explicit list of long‑lead items such as the planned PV array and other equipment with lead times. Wember’s representatives agreed to produce a clarified report for the next meeting.