Conrad council votes to terminate Baumeier contract

After contacting newly appointed city attorney Todd Geer and receiving his legal advice, the Conrad city council voted unanimously to terminate its contract with S.L. Baumeier, Co. of Gladbrook for the Smith Development at Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting.
 
Despite the development being all but completed (at last month’s meeting, it was estimated that the remaining work to be done only amounts to a few hundred dollars), Baumeier had still not made any progress on turning in sales tax statements and lien waivers by the time the council convened on Thursday. City Clerk Denise Hoy informed members that the city had $7,005 in funds that can still be used to pay subcontractors that have not been compensated for their work, and any amount beyond that will be handled through the bonding company. According to comments made at the meeting, only four subcontractors still have outstanding liens on the project.
 
 After a brief discussion, a motion from councilman Brad Murty to abandon the contract passed 5-0.
 
Derek Johnson of ISG attended his second consecutive meeting to review plans for the new fire station and share cost reductions after the initial proposal last month came in substantially above the $1,000,000 budget that the council had initially agreed upon for the project. 
 
Read more in this week's Grundy Register.