Speak up & Speak out

A sewer line was recently repaired on Cole St. by Stewart & Tate, a contractor hired by the town. The contractor was performing the work in a drainage ditch on the south side of the street. Upon completion, the contractor did not ensure the flow line of the ditch was restored to a nearby catch basin, thus creating a severe water entrapment issue in the ditch as well as a playground for mosquitos to breed. The town was made aware of this, yet the issue has yet to be fixed. This is yet another example of the lack of oversight by the town over the contractor's it hires to work in the town. Contractors are getting paid by our tax dollars, yet who is there to insure that the work is being done correctly? Just another example, Cole St. was also paved last year. Instead of milling, patching and paving the road, the contractor patched then paved the road thus raising the road grade and created flooding issues in and on the sides of the road. The flooding in the road was so bad; the contractor was paid to run a drainage pipe from the flooded area to the afore-mentioned drainage ditch. So, in this instance, the contractor got paid for creating an issue due to lack of oversight by the town, and got paid again to rectify a problem that it created. Sounds like a win-win, if you’re a contractor, but a lose-lose if you’re a tax paying citizen. I have a hard time believing that these are “isolated” occurrences, so I invite anyone else to speak up- and speak out and hold the town accountable for the work being performed here.