Monticello Commercial District
The city of Monticello filed its counterclaim on Friday against the Illinois contractor hired for a $10 million water project.
The city accused the contractor, Siemens Industry Inc. of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, of breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation of meter test results, according to its lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Pine Bluff.
It wants U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall Jr. to say the contract the city signed with Siemens in 2013 is illegal and void it. The city of about 10,000 residents also wants the judge to order Siemens to repay the $6.7 million it had already received from the city for the project.
Siemens began installing water meters in 2014, and soon the city was inundated with complaints. City officials said not only were the meters not what it had ordered, but more than a quarter of the meters installed by Siemens needed repairs, according to the lawsuit filed one of the attorneys representing the city, Cliff Gibson of Monticello.
The city blocked Siemens from continuing to work on the project in October
A Siemens spokeswoman on Monday said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Last month, Siemens sued the city, asking the judge to rule that the city breached its contract by blocking Siemens from completing the waterline project. The company also wants the judge to rule that Siemens can finish the job. If that isn’t possible, it wants the judge to award Siemens damages for lost profits and other costs.
Amanda Naiman, a spokeswoman for Siemens, told Arkansas Business earlier this month that she wasn’t aware of any “current quality issues with the water meters.
“But with the stop-work order, we haven’t been able to do anything …, so we haven’t been able to verify or see anything for ourselves,” Naiman said.
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