Milford City Council approved two change orders for the Milford Corporate Center. One was for costs above a $48,000 estimate provided for construction administration services and the other was for additional costs for installation of electrical conduit by George & Lynch. City Planner Rob Pierce provided council with a detailed history of the approvals for the Milford Corporate Center before explaining the change orders.
“This is a change order for on-site electrical conduit installation in the amount of $693,515 for electric lines in Phase I of the project,” Pierce said. “The City Electric Department has reviewed the proposal and found the cost acceptable. The cost of the electric installation was included in the five-year Capital Improvement Plan with a budgeted amount of $800,000 in FY25 and 26. The adjusted contract amount with the change order with George & Lynch would be $18, 684,299.19 and, just for clarification, this was not an unforeseen expense.”
During the public comment portion of the March 2 meeting, Julie Morris expressed concerns about continued change orders for the corporate center.
“I know this has come up before and I know there are unexpected costs and thinks like that with big projects,” Morris, who now lives on Cedar Beach Road, said. “What are we doing to prevent these continued unexpected costs and where are we cutting elsewhere in the city? Like the park on Rehoboth Boulevard. Why don’t we back that up and take the money allocated for that budget and put it towards these things that are unexpected costs instead of continuing to spend on things we don’t need right now, like the bathroom. We can’t stop the corporate center now, but we’re bleeding everywhere else and I’m just not sure why. We’re really just spending on all these things we really don’t need. The paving work? How is that not a duplicate thing.”
Mayor Todd Culotta stopped Morris, claiming that she had used her three minutes.
“This was budgeted in the Capital Improvement Plan,” Pierce said. “It was just not included in the original bid for George & Lynch as the city required these conduits be installed. We felt it would be a good opportunity to have this work done now rather than contract it out later. Staff is recommending authorization of the change order. The costs will be reimbursed to the appropriate accounts with the sale of lots.”
Councilman Jason James confirmed that the $693,515 would be covered by the $800,000 that was included in the Capital Improvement Plan and Pierce confirmed it was, that the additional cost was just not included in George & Lynch’s original bid.
The motion passed by a vote of 7 to 0 as Councilwoman Lori Connor was not present.
The second request was for construction administrative services for Becker Morgan Group as well as KCI Technologies and George & Lynch. A contract with an estimate was issued for $48,000 in 2024 and that estimate has been reached.
“Becker Morgan has provided work authorizations to cover anticipated costs for Phase 1, one of which includes electric utility and conduit layout, grading analysis and stockpile volume analysis with a fixed fee of $25,000,” Pierce said. “The fourth includes additional coordination that has been required to address mismarked or unmarked underground utilities.”
Pierce pointed out that council has been advised there have been issues with natural gas lines and communication lines, specifically Verizon lines, that have impacted the project design and required additional investigation by the design team.
“That fourth work authorization would be in the amount not to exceed $20,000,” Pierce said. “We are here reminding council that we haven’t completed the project, and we are anticipating additional expenses related to the construction administration portion of the project.”
Council had no questions for Pierce and the second motion passed by a vote of 7 to 0 due to Connor’s absence.
