Potter County holds contractor pay request over HVAC and testing failures at booking facility

Potter County staff told commissioners on Aug. 11 that final work on the county’s booking‑room project remains incomplete and that the county is withholding a contractor pay request while critical HVAC testing and corrective work are finished.

The county’s project manager said OPREX submitted pay request No. 10 for $187,008.54 and that the county is holding that request pending completion of HVAC corrective work and successful TAB (testing, adjusting and balancing) results. The county manager also said the project retains $83,660 in retainage. The project manager said a TAB test failed and that several HVAC balance dampers had issues; smoke detector response times also failed to meet the one‑minute sensing requirement in recent testing.

Contractor and county staff set a revised deadline: the contractor must complete outstanding items and pass the TAB and other inspections by Aug. 20, or the county will seek liquidated damages. The project had an earlier revised substantial‑completion date of Aug. 5 that was missed. The county manager said he will not release the pay request until the HVAC issues are corrected and the state and city inspections—including the fire marshal and certificate of occupancy steps—are completed.

Commissioners were told the contractor had produced a preliminary punch list with dozens of deficiencies; the manager said 19 items had been corrected but 45 remained pending as of the most recent review. Staff said the county is holding pay request No. 10 and mentioned retainage withheld as leverage to secure completion. Commissioners instructed staff to monitor progress and to apply liquidated damages if the contractor fails to finish by the new deadline.