The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors approved work on the Muscatine County Courthouse that includes roof repairs and tuckpointing after discussion concerning the contingency budget for the courthouse project.
The board on Oct. 7 approved a change order not to exceed $18,641.96 on a time and material basis from Renaissance Historic Exteriors for the installation of plywood sheathing over a built-in gutter concrete substrate on the courthouse roof.
The current concrete substrate has cracks, splits and voids. The installation of plywood sheathing would provide a flat, smooth and consistent wood substrate for securing the ice and water shield underlayment and copper gutter panels, Renaissance’s change order No. 4 said.
The board also approved the quote from TNT Tuckpointing and Building Restoration LLC for $183,262 for courthouse repairs that include work on the clock tower exterior, clock exterior, clock tower interior, parapet wall and stitch tie technique for perimeter stones.
Mike Nolan with Horizon Architecture described the change order work.
“We have the clock tower roof, we have the flat roofs and then down at the base of the pitch roofs there are some integral gutters that are concrete formed with some stone around the perimeter,” Nolan said. “When Renaissance pulled those pieces up, what they found was that the concrete substrate underneath they’re concerned about the proper way to get the copper lining back into that, so their recommendation was to install plywood sheathing to that.”
Board member Danny Chick said there have been quite a few change orders and asked Nolan how much the change orders have cost in total. Nolan later said he could provide the board with a total.
“With these change orders, we still have a reasonable amount of contingency,” Chairperson Jeff Sorensen said. “To me, the big risk one still out there is, are we going to have to tear off that whole roof, are we going to be able to reuse the attachment technique.”
Nolan said a full tear off of the roof isn’t recommended because a retrofit solution is in place.
“I think that we have hit most of the kind of big question marks, so the only thing that we anticipate right now is the additional fasteners,” Nolan said.
Eric Furnas, planning, zoning and environmental administrator, said there’s almost daily communication with Renaissance about the historic courthouse.
“Even though they did a pretty thorough evaluation when they gave us the initial proposal for the re-roof, there’s a tremendous amount of things underneath that even they couldn’t see without destructive investigation,” Furnas said. “I know we’re always concerned about change orders. They’re expensive. They add up very quickly. They’re always at a higher rate than we want, but it’s been a lot.”
Furnas thanked county employees Brandon Hatcher and General Services Supervisor Oscar Alvarez for their work in managing things as work on the courthouse proceeds. Alvarez has done a great job with ensuring the public’s safety at the courthouse, Furnas said.
“I wanted to just throw a shout out to Brandon from my office. He’s been helping me with this,” Furnas said. “He’s one of my building inspectors. He really understands construction contracts, change orders, doesn’t mind the heights quite as much as I do, so he’s been up there a lot. We really do tag team on this a lot.”
In other action, the board:
Approved the transfer of county-owned real property, two plots at Greenwood Cemetery, by gifting them back through quitclaim deed to Joyce Kopf Andrew and Dennis Kopf, who previously gifted the plots to the county for indigent burials.
Authorized the signing of a contract amendment with Bi-State Regional Commission to extend the deadline for the Comprehensive Plan project to Jan. 31, 2025. The time extension will allow time for staff, zoning commission, county board and the public to review the plan before consideration for adoption.
Approved suspending the collection of taxes on property owned by Judith Mathes of Muscatine. Mathes is eligible for suspension of taxes for being a recipient of medical and facility care.