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September 6, 2005Septage plant contract puts the taxpayers lastIt looked to be a done deal - until taxpayers got the short end again, that is. Back in July, representatives of the two firms that designed and built Grand Traverse County's ill-fated septage treatment plant said reconstruction would be done at no cost to county taxpayers. Good enough. Gourdie-Fraser Associates designed the $7.8 million plant and Christman Co. built it. So when a tank burst just a month after the plant opened, it seemed logical that unless the failure was blamed on operator error - it wasn't - the firms that built it should pay to repair it. That's the way things stood until last week, when the Grand Traverse County Board of Public Works inexplicably agreed to a contract amendment that puts local taxpayers back on the hook. Under the amendment, taxpayers in Acme, Garfield, Elmwood, East Bay and Peninsula townships could get stuck with legal and engineering costs related to the reconstruction. Obviously, some of the folks on the Public Works board have forgotten who they work for. They don't work for Gourdie-Fraser or Christman Co. They work for the taxpayers. So why didn't taxpayers' interests come first? The change came about when county attorney Michael Houlihan suggested contract language that required the two firms to cover engineering costs if it turns out a design flaw must be fixed. The companies, naturally enough, said they didn't like that idea because "it leaves us an open checkbook," as a Gourdie-Fraser representative said. Well, that's tough. Yes, the two firms could take a financial hit if engineering costs soar. But from a taxpayer - and fairness - perspective, it's better that Gourdie-Fraser's checkbook is the one that gets dented, not the public's. This is business. And township officials who make up the Public Works board don't work for the other guys. Are taxpayers supposed to believe that if county employees had caused the plant to implode the two companies would be offering financial aid? Of course not. The board must go back and vote on this mess all over again. They have to hold Gourdie-Fraser and Christman to their promise, as Acme Township Supervisor Bill Kurtz put it, that "not one dime of taxpayers' money" would be used to rebuild the plant. The board has stumbled often enough on the septage plant, from approving a "mascot" and logo (both later abandoned) to trying to build the plant in the middle of a thriving industrial park to delaying the hiring of an outside firm to investigate the implosion. More than a few thousand dollars have already been wasted. But not this time. The board must reverse itself and do what it should have done in the first place - put the folks paying the tab first.
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