You do not need to justify asking questions. But if you think you have found answers, you do not have the right to remain silent. - Jacob Neusner
A presentation of the facts and various Rose Street concerns have now been presented to both Mayor Tom Bennhoff and interim Town Administrator Doug Clark. At the very least it would seem as though the town has every obligation to ensure that the job on Rose Street was done to spec, which we can not really know without digging up a part of the street and checking it out. The engineer never signed off or gave approval of the fittings, pipes, etc. (the engineer would not approve it and was then fired by Paul McKenna). This needs to be done before the street gets paved. There are also the glaring discepancies in what the contracts mandated and what the contractor actually did.
(IT IS A VERY LARGE FILE, PLEASE BE PATIENT)
Here's some of what we've been able to come up with (with the much appreciated help from Merinel-who found many docs in the town administrator's office, and Jed (our town attorney) - who volunteered to bring up all of the docs and research that he had at his office)
Rose Street Sewer Phase 1 happened ($109,000). Rose Street Sewer Phase 2 became a change order to RSSP 1 ($209,000)
The bond was increased to reflect the Phase 2 change order
There is no evidence of any other change order. The contract clearly states that damage done by SCC is to be remedied at SCC's expense.
Rose Street Emergency Water job happened. ($250,000)
An amendment agreement for Rose Street Emergency Water was drafted and signed by Straight Creek CEO, Kevin Buckley and Town Administrator, Paul McKenna. This is the agreement that has been missing. This agreement was drafted in response to a demand for final payment from Straight Creek Construction before the job was actually done. Ex-Town Clerk Phyllis Mehrer has told one of us that she "turned that office upside down" looking for this amendment when Mr. Ed Tharp asked to see it.
Basically, we believe that there are two very valid signed contracts/agreements that have not been fulfilled by the contractor. After looking over the 3 Rose Street job invoices and payouts, it is clear to us that the town did not get a $40,000.00 break for not paving Rose Street. The jobs all ended up equalling the contract amounts. Yet the contracts are clearly not fulfilled.
Major documents still missing:
A complete contract for Rose Street Emergency Water
An actual change order for Rose Street Sewer Phase 2 (although we at least have confirmation of it's existence and a bid estimate from Straight Creek Construction describing the work to be done.)
There are a lot of different aspects of this project that aren't posted or mentioned here, ie, there were two different engineers involved, one was fired by Paul, and the correspondences from the town to DOLA, from Paul to the engineers and vise versa, and emails from/to the Town Attorney just to name a few. As we weed through them, we are putting together a timeline that we will post with links. It's a lot of work, so please be patient. In the meantime, anyone can ask to see these docs from town hall. While you are there, thank the folks working for their efforts, it's not an easy time to be working for the town, especially when there's "hotheads" like us lurking about.
