Oakland to Recoup Some of DPW Project's Added Costs

Oakland is taking a step to reduce the fiscal impact of delays to the DPW building project, borough administrator Richard Kunze told the council last week.

A representative of Epic, the firm overseeing New Brunswick contactor Tekton’s completion of the work on behalf of the borough, told the council last month that the project should be completed this summer, after he was called before the body to explain extra-contractual expenses billed to the borough.

“We have an original budget for this project,” Council Timothy Jensen said at that meeting, “ and we’re starting to run over, and every cost that we incur over that amount, every taxpayer out there looks at us and wants to say, ‘What are you doing about it?’”

Tekton received a $2.5 million contract for renovations to the DPW headquarters in June 2012, and began work the following October.

The Tekton contract was a flat rate, but Epic, which acts as the representative of the borough in supervising the work, is under contract for $10,000 a month. The work had been expected complete by mid-May, after which the borough began running over budget in its payments to Epic.

Kunze said at a July 10 meeting that the borough recognizes some of the delays stemmed from unanticipated problems at the site, as well as weather delays caused by Hurricane Sandy, and allowed that those legitimate setbacks would have pushed the project’s completion back to June 21.

But the borough, he said, will begin recouping the over-budget payments to Epic for delays past that date by deducting the additional costs from the Tekton contract.

The renovations to the DPW building include interior improvements as well as additional garage and storage space that will allow the borough to shutdown another department building on Valley View Road, which has fallen into disrepair.