The discovery of more needed work just made Flossmoor’s Village Hall Generator Improvements Project a bit pricier.
The village board voted unanimously on Monday, Nov. 7, to approve a change order that adds $66,083 to the cost of the project, which brings the total to $581,578 to be paid to Powerlink Electric Inc.
Public Works Director John Brunke said that during preliminary layout work related to generator connections, it was determined that the main building electric feed wiring and layout of a switch gear cabinet were in poor condition. The approved update will replace the building’s electric feed wiring, modify the cabinets, relocate an automatic transfer switch to the switch gear room, modify conduits to accommodate new wiring locations, perform additional concrete work and add whole-building surge protection, Brunke explained.
Brunke added that the surge protection unit for the whole building was something the village brought up after the project was contracted. So while the bulk of the new cost is wiring and the construction of a new cabinet, roughly $5,000 is to cover the surge protection added to the project.
“We have had power surges here,” Brunke said. “Computer equipment’s been fried; rooftop units have failed — all because of surges in power.”
Trustees James Mitros and Gary Daggett had questions about why some of the new work discovered was not addressed initially by the engineers during planning. Brunke said certain things did not appear or did not appear the same on plans reviewed by engineers. The early process is usually conducted by mechanical engineers who do not open cabinets containing high-voltage wiring because they are not electricians, Brunke added, so those issues were not recognized until later. Daggett asked if specific professionals can be involved with planning applicable projects to get a jump on these issues with future work.
“It’s something we should probably look at doing a little differently in the future, actually having an electrician involved and see what is feasible so we could have caught this at the beginning of the project,” Brunke said.
Brunke said the automatic transfer switch has been ordered but the village is still waiting on it. He expects the remaining work will be done in January.
Other Business
- Mayor Michelle Nelson noted that more Rebuild Illinois funds were recently released. That gave Flossmoor $103,000 for capital projects. “That’s desperately needed and we appreciate that,” Nelson said.
- The Flossmoor Village Board voted unanimously to approve its consent agenda. With it, the board approved a contract to purchase de-icing rock salt from Cargill Inc. up to $43,050 at a cost of $71.75 per ton. Flossmoor also has roughly 250 tons of salt remaining from last year’s purchase.
- The consent agenda also included a proclamation declaring November as National Diabetes Month in Flossmoor. The effort is designed to promote early detection and proper treatment of diabetes.