A number of change orders related to construction at the new coroner’s building offered a teachable moment on the nature of allowance funds illustrating how the Lycoming County Commissioners are keeping a close eye on how money is being spent.

At issue were several change orders presented by Steven Whitenight, facilities management department deputy director, at this week’s commissioners’ meeting.

The first was for a change order with Dixon AC R Inc., for air conditioning split units.

According to Whitenight, the company was unable to get the units that they had originally quoted and had to order an

alternate brand, which he said was no cost increase.

Commissioner Mark Mussina questioned how there could be no change in cost for the Dixon AC R work when the breakdown shows an increase of $12,346.

“To make sense of all that when the contract or agreement was built, they took and created a fund for each contractor or subcontractor. They set aside so much allowance for each contractor. So if they had change orders or something came up that wasn’t in the original plan, they were able to pull from that money that was already there. that they were able to pull it from,” Whitenight explained.

Board solicitor, Chris Kenyon explained that there is a built-in contingency in any bidding process.

“Instead of saying no pricing, they should say allowance funds being used. Would that be correct,” said Commissioner Marc Sortman, referring to the two change orders.

Three change orders were approved for Keystone Construction LLC in the amounts of: $11,851; $16,620; and $2,625 — all to be paid from allowance funds. A fourth change order in the amount of $22,916 was also approved. Whitenight said that although it was not an approved budget item, funds were available. It was noted that this was also for work that has already been completed.

Sortman alluded to his continuing concern about retroactively approving work that has been completed in comments at the end of the meeting.

“I’m not gonna bore everybody with contracts and doing work prior to approval again this week,” Sortman said.

Sortman noted that any money in the contingency fund will be returned if not used and upwards of $100,000 has been discovered that will be returned.

“Which is good news for county taxpayers,” Sortman said.

Other items approved by the commissioners included: a change order for R&L Development related to Phase I Closure at the landfill extending the project to Nov. 30; an agreement with Clinton County Correctional Facility in the amount of $73 per inmate, per day; ratification of the request for a 50-day extension for the EWP (Emergency Watershed Protection) Project through Nov. 16; an agreement with Sharon McLaughlin, Esq. to provide legal representation as needed in the Public Defender’s Office when there is a conflict at a cost of $90 per hour; an agreement with Susan Shanaman, Esq in the amount of $4,300; a three-year renewal of maintenance management software with Micromain in the amount of $2,467; a change order with Shiloh Paving with increase of $2,450 to add two control units to one of the cross pipe projects; and a change order with Shiloh Paving in the amount of $29,400 coming back to the county because of a cross pipe being removed from their workload due to unexpected conditions.

Under personnel, the county approved the promotion of Kristina Travis to full-time domestic relations officer II, at $47,599 per year; and Brett Bennett and Taquan Hoffman, full-time union correctional officers at the prison, $20 per hour each.

The next meeting will be at 10 a.m. Oct. 2 in the Commissioners’ Board Room, third floor, Third Street Plaza, 33 W. Third St.