On 13 October 2026, The Dalles City Council was set to weigh a proposal that would let City Manager Matthew Klebes approve qualifying construction change orders on public improvement contracts without returning to the council for an individual vote, a change framed around keeping projects moving when unexpected site conditions surface mid-construction Columbia Community Connection.
Key takeaways
- The Dalles City Council was scheduled to consider the change-order authority at a special meeting beginning 5:30 p.m. on 13 October 2026 at City Hall, 313 Court St Columbia Community Connection.
- Under the proposal, Klebes could approve cumulative net increases of up to 20% of the original award on qualifying public improvement contracts originally approved by the council for more than $100,000 Columbia Community Connection.
- Ajax Northwest LLC holds the First Street Streetscape construction contract with a November 2025 bid of $4,069,687, against which 20% works out to roughly $814,000 Columbia Community Connection.
- Change orders on the First Street project have included a $364,223 sewer main change, a $146,804 archaeological monitoring amendment and a $146,955 archaeological recovery amendment, lifting the contract ceiling to $802,744.70 Columbia Community Connection.
- The city is also updating its wastewater facilities master plan, including a 20-year capital improvement plan and recommendations on wastewater rates and system development charges, and has pursued a $650,000 loan for the planning work Columbia Community Connection.
What happened
The Dalles City Council scheduled the policy debate for a 5:30 p.m. special meeting on 13 October 2026 at City Hall, 313 Court St., with the meeting to be streamed online and public-hearing testimony accepted remotely Columbia Community Connection. The agenda also lists a review of progress on the city's 2026–28 strategic plan, a wastewater facilities master plan update, the West Sixth Street Bridge feasibility analysis, housing initiatives, a Scenic Drive surplus declaration and floodplain regulation cleanup Columbia Community Connection.
The proposed authority is narrower than a blank spending allowance. It would let Klebes approve cumulative net increases of up to 20% of the original award on qualifying public improvement contracts originally approved by the council for more than $100,000, with each change order still required to stay within available budget authority Columbia Community Connection. Any project needing spending beyond its approved budget would still have to follow the required council budget process Columbia Community Connection.
The First Street Streetscape project illustrates why the change is on the table. Ajax Northwest LLC won the construction contract in November 2025 with a bid of $4,069,687, putting the 20% cap on administratively approved increases at roughly $814,000 Columbia Community Connection. In June, the council unanimously approved a $364,223 change order after crews discovered a century-old, 27-inch clay sewer main beneath the intersection of First and Court streets, which extended the target completion date by 73 days to 13 July 2027 Columbia Community Connection. Archaeological findings added more cost: a $146,804 monitoring amendment in April raised the contract ceiling to $655,789.70, and a $146,955 recovery, excavation and mitigation amendment on 27 July brought the ceiling to $802,744.70 Columbia Community Connection.
| First Street Streetscape change | Amount (USD) | Reported outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Original contract (Nov 2025) | $4,069,687 | Awarded to Ajax Northwest LLC |
| June 2026 sewer main change order | $364,223 | Completion extended 73 days to 13 July 2027 |
| April 2026 archaeological monitoring | $146,804 | Contract ceiling raised to $655,789.70 |
| 27 July 2026 archaeological recovery | $146,955 | Contract ceiling raised to $802,744.70 |
On the wastewater side, the agenda notes that the city is updating its wastewater facilities master plan, which will address treatment capacity, regulatory compliance and a broken outfall pipe, alongside recommendations on wastewater rates and system development charges, and a $650,000 loan is being pursued for the planning work Columbia Community Connection.
Specification read
The reported scale here is administrative, not hydraulic: the proposal lets the city manager approve cumulative net increases of up to 20% of the original award on qualifying public improvement contracts originally approved by the council for more than $100,000, anchored by the $4,069,687 First Street Streetscape bid Columbia Community Connection. No treatment-plant flow in m³/day, BOD or COD loading, or population equivalent was reported in the source, so the size of the underlying wastewater facility has to be confirmed from the master plan update rather than inferred here. The change-order line items that have already hit the First Street contract — the $364,223 century-old 27-inch clay sewer main and the $146,804 plus $146,955 archaeological amendments — bear on buried linear infrastructure that sits upstream of the headworks and primary stages of a typical municipal train (screening → grit removal → primary clarification → biological: A2O / MBR / MBBR / SBR / UASB → tertiary and disinfection, with DAF or ZLD where reuse or tight discharge limits apply), and they are exactly the kind of finds that tend to reset construction programmes and contingency budgets on municipal collection-and-treatment work. If your utility runs a mid-sized municipal plant in the few thousand to a few tens of thousands of m³/day range, with BOD in the typical 150–300 mg/L domestic range, infiltration-and-inflow and aging-brick sewer surprises are a recurring source of change orders, and a delegated change-order cap of this shape is most useful where buried utilities, archaeological monitoring and tight regulator deadlines can otherwise stall a project. The First Street case, the Ajax Northwest contract and the broader master plan work also intersect with screening and primary-solids handling on the wastewater side, which is where the choices laid out in our Rotary Screen Selection Guide 2026: Internally vs Externally Fed Drum Screens and the heavy-metal control questions in our Copper Removal Methods Comparison 2026: Which Process Fits Your Wastewater? tend to come up at procurement.
FAQ
What change is The Dalles actually considering?
The council was set to consider letting City Manager Matthew Klebes approve cumulative net increases of up to 20% of the original award on qualifying public improvement contracts originally approved by the council for more than $100,000, without taking each change order back to the council for an individual vote Columbia Community Connection.
What triggered the proposal?
The First Street Streetscape project has already absorbed a $364,223 sewer main change order and two archaeological amendments totalling $293,759, pushing the Ajax Northwest LLC contract ceiling to $802,744.70 and extending completion by 73 days Columbia Community Connection.
Does this give the city manager an unrestricted spending allowance?
No. Each administratively approved change order would still have to stay within the project's available budget authority, and anything beyond the approved budget would still go through the required council budget process Columbia Community Connection.
What else was on the 13 October 2026 agenda?
Alongside the change-order policy, the council was set to review progress on the 2026–28 strategic plan (11 of 110 actions complete after three quarters, 10% completion), an update to the wastewater facilities master plan backed by a $650,000 loan, the West Sixth Street Bridge feasibility analysis, housing initiatives, a Scenic Drive surplus declaration and a floodplain regulation cleanup Columbia Community Connection.
