Monroe council appoints boards for 2020

Yearly council and board appointments were distributed during the Monroe City Council meeting Monday. The council met for the first time in the new year at the Monroe Public Library due to the continued clean up at city hall but city staff is expected to be back at city hall this week.

For the council, councilwoman Andrea Steenhoek will serve as mayor pro tem should mayor Doug Duinink be absent. Councilwoman Andrea St. Peter is appointed to water and sewer, Steenhoek to parks and cemetery, councilman Sean Wilson and councilwoman Jean Goemaat to public safety, police and fire department, councilwoman Stacey McCoy to general business and every council member will cover streets.

City boards, made up of citizen volunteers, cover the library, zoning, 911 and board of adjustments. On the library board for 2020 are Cathy DeHaai, Nancy Wright, Marlene Beyer, Mary Sellers, Jeanne Van Genderen and Matt Raush. Fire chief Rob Wilson will serve as the 911 representative with police chief Nick Chambers and Duinink serving as alternates.

The board of adjustments consists of Scott Mavis, Sherri Breckenridge, Melissa Van Der Hart, Charles Burns, Richard Aalbers and Gary Munson. Patty Duinink, Leroy Kinart, Nick Steeknoek, Kathy Van Veen, Brian Briles, Donita Breckenridge and Cary Diekema make up the zoning board.

Caldwell, Brierly, Chalupa, PLLC was designated the city attorney and The PCM Explorer and Newton Daily News the official newspapers.

The council also voted to not issue a payment to TK Concrete for additional rock used on the West Lincoln Street project. Additional rock was used to shore up areas of the roadway during reconstruction and totaled about $11,500.

“Jeff Timmons, me and the contractor were all on site and came up with the amount of area that needed additional material, we were all on the same page with that,” Alex Amadeo, engineer with ISG, said. “However, once we requested the pay application from the contractor, he requested about 200 tons of this item and that has been paid.”

He said right before Thanksgiving, the contractor asked to meet at his office to discuss further payment for the amount that was installed. The request had never been made before that day.

“As you are all away, this project took a lot longer to be substantially complete. I think the original date was Aug. 1 however it wasn’t actually completed until Nov. 1, that is an additional three months,” Amadeo said. “If this item would have been requested last July, we would have had no issue requesting this additional payment of about $11,500.”

Steenhoek brought up how the city could have billed the contractor $500 per day for not having it completed by. Aug. 1. The amount the city could collect due to the delay is about $45,000.

“My opinion is you just go back and tell them that you consider it a wash,” Duinink said. “We were more than patient.”

The council approved leaving the project as is, not paying out any additional funds and also not asking for any money, either.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com