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Redevelopment commission approves Cliffs reallocation study, tables several DLZ supplemental agreements
Summary
The St. Joseph County Redevelopment Commission on Oct. 22 approved a Donahue & Associates study to analyze reallocating potable supply between the older Cleveland Cliffs plant and the Saint Joe Energy Center (SJEC) and tabled three DLZ supplemental agreements for further cost breakdowns and clarification of scope and liability.
The St. Joseph County Redevelopment Commission voted Oct. 22 to approve a demand-reallocation study by Donahue & Associates to analyze how potable water produced at the Saint Joe Energy Center (SJEC) could be allocated among users — including the older Cleveland Cliffs treatment plant — and to provide options for managing peak and long-term demand.
Speaker 3, who introduced the study, said the work would "give us some tools in the toolbox to really understand the water, where it can come from, and how it can be used most efficiently," describing the contract as a not-to-exceed study to guide future upgrades and allocations.
The commission also spent substantial time on three supplemental agreements with DLZ for construction observation, design and construction-phase services tied to multiple water projects including wells and a planned water tower. Andy Lompares of DLZ explained DLZ would act as the county's contract manager and provide on-site engineers, shop-drawing review and multi-discipline construction-administration during the work, saying those services "are to have two on-site engineers, during the construction ... monitoring construction, making sure it's built per the contract documents." (Speaker 9)
Commissioners pressed DLZ and staff on scope and cost, with one commissioner noting that the DLZ agreements appeared to permit limited contractor liability and asking what would happen if problems occur. As one commissioner put it, "They don't apparently per what I read yesterday have any particular liability if the contractor does something wrong. What I don't understand for $5,500,000 exactly what they're doing." (Speaker 4)
Staff and DLZ responded that DLZ would serve as an extension of county engineering staff — which lacks the in-house capacity to manage large treatment-plant construction — and that, if DLZ were negligent, the county would have recourse against DLZ. Staff also said many of these services will be reimbursed under the AWS agreement.
After additional questioning about aggregated totals and clearer dollar breakout, the commission voted to table the three DLZ supplemental agreements until its Nov. 12 meeting to allow staff to present clearer cost breakdowns and contract language.
What happens next: The Donahue & Associates study moves forward as approved; DLZ supplemental agreements were tabled for further documentation and clearer cost summaries ahead of potential approval on Nov. 12.
