Marquette County to settle dispute with wastewater treatment contractor

MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution to pay more than $5,000 to a company that apparently did not do work it was contracted to do.

The company, AECOM Technical Services of Michigan, Inc., was hired to do improvements at the wastewater treatment plant at K.I. Sawyer. The Marquette County Board says the company took too long to get those projects completed, resulting in the board terminating the contract.

“You either have to fish or cut bait, and we cut the services and went with the new company,” county board chairman Gerry Corkin said. “We changed contractors a few months ago, and they (AECOM) had some claims against the county, and we had some claims against them, and we came up with the offer to settle the disagreement.”

To settle the contract dispute, the county will pay AECOM $5,615. However, AECOM still has to agree to the payment. If they do not agree, the county could face a lawsuit of $95,000.

“I think it’s a smart decision to make this offer to settle the contract rather than go to litigation for a long period of time and try to figure it out,” Corkin said.

The county hired GEI Consultants to fulfill the contract requirements for the wastewater treatment plant.