By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
For the record, squirrels in Cheney cost $64,508.
Oh yes, and 21 cents.
That's the amount the Cheney City Council agreed to shell out to Power City Electric to replace circuit switches at the city Light Department's electrical substation on Cheney-Plaza Road.
The switches were damaged last March when a squirrel entered an electrical conduit and caused a short circuit resulting in an almost 90-minute long power outage to over 1,800 Cheney and 575 Inland Power and Light customers.
In explaining the contract to the council at its April 24 meeting, light manager Bob Behrens said Aztech Electric was the original low bidder among the three companies who chose to pursue the project.
Aztech was deemed non-responsive and disqualified after it failed to show up for a mandatory walk-through of the substation, something Behrens said is key for this project because the work scope requires the substation be de-energized and the city switched to its Four Lakes substation in order to stay powered.
“In this project, it's important that vendors know up front exactly what to do,” Behrens said. “It (relying on the Four Lakes substation) puts the city at somewhat of an abnormal risk.”
After Aztech failed to show for the walk-through, the city disqualified it and went with the second lowest, Power City. The other bidder was Mountain Power Construction.
“The bid specifications were very clear that there was a mandatory walk-through,” Cheney City Administrator Robert Strope said, responding to Councilman Curt Huff's question concerning possible liability to the city for its removal of Aztech.
The council unanimously approved Power City's contract.
“Now we know a squirrel is worth $64,508,” Councilman Tom Trulove said.
In other business the council approved an $11,000 appropriation from the public works department to pay for the notice of construction and application for approval permit for the city's wastewater treatment plant expansion project.
The Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority (SCAPCA) requires the permit and its approval before any construction work can begin.
The city's engineering consultant, Esvelt Environmental Engineering, will handle the application process since they have been working on the plant's expansion design, and can provide needed expertise, Cheney public works director Don MacDonald said.
In other business, city attorney Frank Conklin told the council that a Spokane Superior Court judge had granted the city's request to have funds released from a special account to provide some compensation for its expenses in the decade-long legal battle over the Myers Mobile Home Park.
Park owner Thomas E. Myers was required to deposit $135,000 in an account with the court, and a subsequent ruling by the court in April 2004 instructed him to pay Cheney $109,998 of this for expenses, an amount that has since risen to over $149,000 with interest.
When the Washington State Supreme Court denied Myers' final appeal on April 4 of this year, the money became Cheney's.
Contacted on April 25, Conklin said his office had received the court's check for $136,956, and would be pursuing the additional $12,414 owed from $20,000 Myers deposited directly with the city.
Conklin also said that on April 20 Superior Court judge Linda Tompkins had dismissed a recent lawsuit brought by Myers “with prejudice,” meaning Myers cannot appeal the ruling.
The court found he failed to follow state statutes by filing an appeal of a December 2006 city land use decision regarding his mobile home park within 14 days, and by appealing directly to the City Council.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected]
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