By Barbara Behrendt, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
BROOKSVILLE - The County Commission won't be paying millions of dollars more to the company it hired to dredge the Hernando Beach Channel and declared Orion Dredging Services LLC in breach of its contract.
To keep the project from simply dying, the commission on Tuesday agreed to begin the search for a new contractor and seek some repayment from Orion's bonding company.
County officials planned to gather Wednesday morning to do whatever is needed to get the long-delayed project back on track.
The commission's action will likely bring a legal response from Orion as an official with the company told the board on Tuesday that they had their lawyers ready to go if the county declared a breach in the contract.
Orion officials requested the hearing before the County Commission after the county notified them recently that it had breached its contract and had 10 days to get back to work. Monday was the 10th day.
Orion officials wrote back to say that work could not begin again until the county agreed to pay added costs of the modified project. The dredging firm has asked for another $7.8 million on top of its $5 million contract.
The budget for the entire project is $9 million with the state picking up two thirds of that cost.
The project had to be modified from its original plan in January, just weeks after dredging began, when officials discovered that the water returned to the nearby canal was loaded with sediment.
That was a violation of the provisions of the county's dredging permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Working with officials from Orion and the county's dredge consultant Halcrow, county officials finally worked out a solution to the sediment problem acceptable to the DEP. Last month the agency issued the county a new permit requiring the use of settling ponds and a coagulant to strip the solids from the water.
Orion officials argue that Halcrow designed a de-watering plan that was flawed and it is Halcrow's job, and not Orion's, to design a system that works. The contract tied Orion to use the flawed system, a mechanical de-watering unit, argued Orion's general counsel and vice president Peter Buchler.
He told commissioners that his firm wanted to stick with the project. In order to meet the letter of the contract, the county and Orion would have to agree to a change order, a new price and a change in the schedule.
He said that the county was in essence asking Orion to do millions of extra dollars worth of work for free.
The county has taken the position that Orion was hired to accomplish the dredge and had ample opportunity before bidding the project to examine the existing conditions, work out a plan that would meet the permit requirements and bid accordingly.
Todd Stockberger, senior vice president for Halcrow, argued on Tuesday that it was Orion's job as contractor to choose the methods of de-watering that would meet the requirements of the DEP permit including requirements to properly clean the sediment from the water to be returned to the canal.
Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1434.