By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

The Trumbull County commissioners have approved another change order related to the troublesome Kinsman sewer project, this time $101,826 — primarily to accommodate “fatty clay soil.”

Sanitary Engineer Scott Verner said soil borings were done for the project, but those samples did not detect several locations where the fatty soil isn’t strong enough to support sewer pipes.

To make it stronger, the contractor, Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. of Youngstown, is installing ductile iron pipes driven vertically into the ground and timber planking horizontally above that to provide an adequate foundation.

That method will increase the cost $70,823 in the Goff Court area north of Kinsman Square and $11,491 on Main Street. The problem also will increase the cost $6,463 at a pump station on Goff Court.

The latest change orders bring the total of eight change orders to $1,057,028 for the $10.6 million project that will bring sewer lines to 343 homes and businesses within a half-mile of Kinsman Center and the Farmdale area.

The good news, Verner said, is the project is expected to be substantially complete within about a week, meaning customers could tie in, leaving only restoration of roads, grading and seeding to be finished.

In other business, commissioners rejected the bids received for construction of the Trumbull County Veterans Service Commission Building, which is planned for East Market near Pine Street.

The bids received exceeded the architects’ estimate by more than 10 percent, so Phillips/Sekanick Architects will revise the bid documents to see whether alternate materials can be used or other revisions can be made to bring down the price, said Jim Misocky, projects administrator for the commissioners.

Last March, when the commissioners selected Phillips/Sekanick for the project, commissioners told the Veterans Service Commission the building would be ready in nine to 12 months and cost about $400,000.

Later, the commissioners learned the building needed to be about 7,000 square feet and would cost more than $1 million, Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said. The bids submitted all exceeded $2 million.

The commissioners this week also approved a new three-year contract for the 35 unionized workers at the county Children Services agency.

The pay increases, which also will be paid to the agency’s 132 nonunion workers, will cost the agency $138,000 in 2015, $164,000 in 2016 and $169,000 in 2017.

The contract with Teamsters Local 377 includes a 2.25 percent pay increase effective immediately, 2 percent Jan. 1, 2016, and 2 percent Jan. 1, 2017.

The deal will increase the pay for a union cook or custodian from $10.21 per hour in 2015 to $10.62 in 2017, union account clerk from $11.48 in 2015 to $11.95 in 2017, nonunion caseworker from $15.41 in 2015 to $16.03 in 2017 and manager from $32.57 in 2015 to $33.88 in 2017.

The employee share of health insurance costs rises from 10 percent previously to 11 percent now.