Change orders are not uncommon in construction projects, as the county's approximately $40 million prison project has reconfirmed.

As long as the changes result from issues that were difficult or impossible to anticipate beforehand, the need for a change order should be regarded as a reasonable part of the construction experience.

But the county commissioners have grounds for being unhappy about some of the change orders that have shown up recently in regard to the $4.83 million Sunnyview Home renovation project. Some of the changes for which the county has been billed are for items that should not now be an issue.

For instance, there's the $2,943 change order to upgrade the voltage powering a new elevator. The proj-ect's initial plans should have provided for the voltage needed to run the elevator properly.

Adequate consultations between IKM, Inc., the Pittsburgh architectural firm that designed the renovation project, and elevator professionals could have produced the right power specifications from day one.

In addition, the commissioners were presented a change order for $4,490 for relocating nurse call boxes, which they also approved. County residents are justified in being puzzled as to why such a basic item was not correct in the original project drawings.

It was laudable that Jeff Brown, IKM vice president, was willing to concede that some change orders were due to oversights by his company. However, that doesn't soothe the fact that the commissioners feel compelled to hire an independent consultant to verify whether requested change orders are due to architect oversights.

What that will cost is anybody's guess, but professional advice doesn't come cheaply.

Even though the project is 90 days behind schedule, at its current 80 percent completion stage the project should not be evoking such concerns.

Commissioner Scott Lowe was not out of line in pointing out that the county paid IKM for an accurate design.

Brown was equally correct in pointing out that producing a flawless design was virtually impossible because of unknowns that surface amid the construction process.

But considering some of the changes needed at Sunnyview, Brown should not have been so quick to voice the excuse that change orders to date represent only about 2.8 percent of the project cost — under the national average of 5 percent for similar projects.

Under the circumstances, that 2.8 percent figure should be significantly lower, and that reflects negatively on IKM, not the county government.

Some of the requested changes were within the realm of the easily avoidable, and the commissioners' current unhappiness that they weren't avoided isn't unreasonable.

It's important that there be no errors or avoidable inefficiencies within the Sunnyview renovations, but the architectural firm had avenues for ensuring that throughout the design process.

It's clear now that there were failures along the way.

The commissioners decided to delay approving a $1,075 change for demolishing a shower drain and $5,712 for relocating two conduits for a fire alarm system. Brown said there was no way to know beforehand that the conduits were located inside a wall.

The commissioners were correct in voicing their displeasure about the change orders publicly.