Editorial: Disagreement between engineers hold up library

The engineers for the City of Belleville and the Belleville Area District Library are at a stand-off over some wording that would assess liability — and this is standing in the way of the construction of the new library.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Belleville Area District Library Board, architect Dan Whisler explained the problem.
He said Hennessey Engineers, who work for the City of Belleville, are requiring wording on the eight plans provided to the city with the caveat that if Hennessey missed something, the project will still meet all their standards, which are not published and could change at any time. They’ve required this for 17 years.
Whisler said their standards are not written out and if they change them the wording would give liability to the library engineers, Beckett and Rader, and the insurance carriers will not stand for that.
“We are insured against negligent acts” and the insurance would cover that, but not this. The city engineer refuses to budge and so do the library engineers.
They are trying to find a solution and O’Neil Construction wants to get started on building the library. The situation is on the cusp of costing the library project money since workers on the scene will need to be paid.
Library board members suggested taking it to the mayor and city council. Hopefully, this can be settled soon.