The cost of repairing a water tower on Center Street has spiralled over the last several months as issues overlooked by the original inspection company come to light.

The price tag for repainting the tower and bringing it up to standard has risen from the original bid of $370,000 to well over $500,000 since August, according to city records.

Lake Charles City Council members signed off on the third and steepest change order, a $56,500 increase, at a special meeting this week called to fast-track the vote.

The additional money was needed to replace failed Federal Aviation Administration lights and install an electrical grounding system for the tank — issues the inspectors failed to notice.

The previous two cost increases were needed to replace corroded erection rods and outdated electrical equipment on the tower, among others.

Council members voiced dissatisfaction with what appeared to be a lax job by the inspection company and asked what could be done to hold companies accountable in the future.

“We pay good money for them to do a job that they’re not fulfilling, and we have to come back and back and back,” August said. “We don’t have the money to waste like that.”

Councilman Johnnie Thibodeaux asked whether the city could penalize companies when they don’t meet expectations. City attorney David Morgan said it depends on the wording of the contract.

Councilman Rodney Geyen suggested the city choose not to solicit a bid from that inspection company — an out-of-state business — in the future.

Josh Fontenot, engineer at Manchac Consulting Group, the contractor for the project, said the company was chosen because it submitted the lowest bid.

However, he said, the city isn’t required to select the company with the lowest bid when it comes to certain professional services like it is for other work.

“In hindsight, lowest cost on a professional service is not always the best way to shop for that,” Fontenot said. “It should have been shopped on the basis of qualifications and, had that been the case, this company likely would not have been chosen and these items wouldn’t have been left off.”

But Fontenot assured council members that the three change orders are “good costs” they would have had to pay anyway.

City Planning Director Mike Huber said the city aims to repaint and repair all three of its water towers over the next two years starting with the one on Center Street near Prien Lake Road then moving to the tower by Chennault International Airport, and later to the one off Nelson Road.

“We’ve gone a number of years without really doing a whole lot of maintenance on any of our water towers, and we’ve made the decision that we’re going to get all of our systems up to speed in good shape,” Huber said.

Huber said the same company inspected all three towers in 2015. After the issues at the Center Street tower, he said, the city found similar issues at the Chennault location and updated its bid request to include those repairs. The bid for the Chennault tower came in at $515,000.

Huber said the out-of-state company specializes in this type of inspection work, so the city more or less took it at its word.

“When you have someone like that, you’d think you wouldn’t have to follow up on them, but that’s what we’ve had to do,” Huber said.

Councilman Stuart Weatherford said it’s not uncommon for the city to hire a company that performs poorly, but said the city could do a better job of making sure work meets its standards.

Mayor Nic Hunter concurred.

“I can tell you right now we have some situations with buildings that are not that old that we shouldn’t be having,” Hunter said.

Hunter said he supported being more selective in the future when hiring companies, and more thorough when checking if a job has been done correctly.

Huber said the city plans not to use that same company in the future.