Supervisors to engineering firm: ‘unacceptable’
Gilmore City-Bradgate Elementary School students in grades 3-6 cleaned up a portion of the Three Rivers Trail near Bradgate. The trail is supervised and maintained by Humboldt County Conservation. Pictured above, front row (l-r) Mitchell Ohnemus, Kylie Ohnemus, Jack Habben, Carter Jensen, Emma Weydert, Neleigh Almond, Kory Jones, Dawsyn Harris and Alex Wiemers. Back row: James (Jim) Tuite, Cyler Cirks, RJ Metzger, Joey Hollar, Chevy Harris, Houston Nielsen, Kiera Flynn, Aaliyah Spitler, Macy Eastman, DNR conservation officer Bill Spece, Chloe Dickey, Addi Price, Lacota Metzger, Klayton Jones, Alicia Anderson and Coltin Hoover. Submitted photo.
By Kent Thompson
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors have vowed to get tough on drainage engineering specifications and inspections for county drainage district projects. On Monday, the Board put their words into actions, denying a suggested change by a drainage engineering firm the county hired.
Late last week, the Board found out that there was a tile connection issue at the confluence of two drainage district laterals in Drainage District No. 33, northeast of Humboldt. Holland Construction of Forest City has been doing work on the project for the past two months. The work includes a new branch relief tile and lateral improvements on branch D, principally on the Virgil and Richard Williams farms, northeast of Humboldt.
I&S Group of Algona and Kent Rode were in charge of the project. Rode told the Board that the existing lateral D-1 and D-4 tiles were found to be approximately one foot lower than the original tiles.
Rode proposed replacing the tiles with a larger tile size at a flatter grade, to make up for the elevation difference.
Rode’s proposal was unacceptable to the Board of Supervisors.
“This is not acceptable and this is not the way it is going to be fixed. It was a huge miscalculation on your part. It’s not the contractor’s fault. Being one foot off is unacceptable and it’s not going to be paid by us (the county), the drainage district or the landowner. It falls squarely on your shoulders,” District 4 Supervisor Erik Underberg told Rode.
Read more about this story in this week's Humboldt Independent. Subscribe by clicking on the link at the top of this page.
