BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The City of Lake Butler has hired a Gainesville attorney to help it recover nearly $72,000 in costs related to a water main break on Friday, January 17.
The mishap shut down water service to city customers and forced Union County public schools to close early.
Then-Director of Public Works Sam Norris said the break was caused by a Florida Department of Transportation contractor, taking soil borings on Southwest 6th Avenue in front of the city’s waterworks facility.
“Obviously,” he said, “they bore sighted in the wrong spot. We had to do a shut-off of the whole city.”
During an April 14 city commission meeting, City Manager Kimberly Hayes gave commissioners a breakdown of costs to repair the line, which included a $67,680 invoice from W.W. Gay, a $2,212 bill from Fortline Waterworks, and $1,565 in additional labor charges from the city’s public works department.
She said the state road agency hired Preferred Materials for help on the turning lane project, which in turn hired Future Works to perform the boring samples.
“I was working with FDOT, Future Works, and Preferred Materials, and I’ve been on the phone with these guys since January trying to get payment for the…$71,818 (for) damages, staff salaries, and parts we had to purchase that night,” she told commissioners. “It’s been a fight ever since. Preferred Materials has been talking with me. Future Works has not talked with me yet.”
Hayes added that she asked City Attorney John E. Maines, IV for advice and the lawyer recommended they call Robert Butts in Gainesville, a specialist in construction law and a general contractor.
“We made contact with him,” Maines explained to commissioners, “and interestingly, when DOT discovered we had consulted with Mr. Butts, they immediately put a stop payment on the $71,000 to the subcontractor. So, I mean, it’s amazing how that worked. I mean, it was like, as soon as we mentioned outside counsel, it was like no, no, no, no.”
Commissioners approved a $71,818 loan from the city’s Wastewater Fund to the Water Fund for the municipality to pay W.W. Gay and the other contractors who repaired the line.
Hayes and Maines told commissioners they will continue to work with Butts to resolve the matter. However, the Gainesville lawyer’s rate is $450 an hour, and the city is unlikely to recover those legal fees.
