Category: Excavating contractor

Deputies from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) arrived to an empty lot at 1201 Gooden Crossing in Unincorporated Largo on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.

Heavy equipment was brought which began to dig and move large amounts of dirt which are being sifted through and examined.

It is believed that his search may be connected to three woman reported missing decades ago; Margaret Dash, Retha Lee Hiers, and Donyelle Johnson. Despite not knowing each other, all three missing woman knew one person in common, Cleveland Hill Jr. He was a local minister and asphalt contractor.

Retha Lee Hiers was last seen in the morning hours of December 19, 1982 leaving her Largo apartment to buy laundry detergent. Retha never returned.

Deputies investigating decades old disappearance of local woman

Retha Heirs and her boyfriend had six children during their 25 year long relationship. They did marry shortly before her disappearance when her boyfriend found out she was having an affair with a family friend, Cleveland Hill, Jr.

Cleveland Hill, Jr., was an asphalt contractor and himself married. Retha reportedly attempted to kill herself when her boyfriend found out about the relationship. He instead agreed to marry her when she swore her relationship with Hill Jr. was over.

A few days after her disappearance, her husband received a letter. The letter was supposedly from Retha stating she was leaving him, wanted to be with Cleveland Hill Jr., and wanted the children to stay with her husband.

Four months later, her two-door white 1976 Ford Elite was found on Gulf To Bay Blvd in Clearwater, Florida.

Donyelle Johnson went missing on April 4, 1989. She was last seen leaving the campus of the St. Petersburg Junior College in Clearwater. Her vehicle was later located abandoned behind a restaurant at Belcher Road and East Bay Drive in Largo. A male called a towing company to report the vehicle was having trouble and needed to be towed. That man was never identified. The vehicle reportedly had a loose battery connection but otherwise fully operational. Johnson’s father received a letter two days after her disappearance. The letter, supposedly from Donyelle, stated she was involved with drugs and moving to Orlando to “straighten out her life.” Handwriting experts examined the letter and concluded that it was written by Donyelle.

Johnson was in a relationship with Hill Jr.. He had showered her with money, expensive gifts, and even a car that her parents made her return to him. Johnson reportedly became scared of Hill Jr. and tried to end the relationship. She told her parents that Hill Jr. threatened her and told her that he would “make people disappear.”

Margaret Dash was last seen on June 14, 1974 when she left her home off Wildwood Street in Clearwater. She was borrowing her daughter’s car to pickup medication for a sick relative. The vehicle was later located in a abandoned parking lot in St. Petersburg. Dash was married but also dating Cleveland Hill Jr. at the time of her disappearance. Hill told Dash’s husband about the relationship and continued despite the relationship continuing for many more months. Dash eventually decided to end the relationship with Hill threatening to kill her.

Hill served a prison sentence after shooting his wife and mother in law in 1968. In 1992, he was convicted of drug trafficking and returned to prison. He was released from prison in 2008 and reportedly died in 2018. He denied any knowledge or involvement in the disappearance of these woman.

Nothing was located during a previous operation to search the lot in 1993.

Detectives say they received several tips of possible human remains being buried on the property which was formerly owned by Cleveland Hill Jr. Hill was a suspect in the 1982 disappearance of 43-year-old Retha Hiers. No remains were ever recovered. Hill died in 2018 at 70 years-old and maintained his
innocence up until he died.

Detectives began the excavation of the property on June 28, 2022 and completed the excavation on July 6, 2022. According to detectives, no evidence related to the case was located at the scene.

The investigation continues.

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YOUNGSTOWN — Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. has sued Youngstown State University over an asphalt, surface parking lot construction project on which the company bid, but was not selected.

The project is called the Arlington Parking Facility and will replace the former parking deck on Fifth Avenue between Lincoln Avenue and Arlington Street. The surface lot will have 163 parking spaces.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, alleges the university awarded the contract for construction of the lot to Steel Valley Contractors of Youngstown “in violation of competitive bidding laws and YSU’s request for proposals.”

The project is a “publicly funded public improvement project, which is subject to competitive bidding laws” that require YSU to award the contract to the “lowest responsive and responsible bidder” as detailed in Ohio law, the suit contends.

The suit’s goal is to stop the university from awarding or executing the contract, the suit states.

Awarding the contract to Steel Valley Contractors “would result in a higher price when SVC’s bid is properly tabulated and also sacrifices the integrity of the biding system,” the suit states.

Marucci & Gaffney of Youngstown and Steel Valley Contractors were the only bidders, and both companies submitted bids by the Sept. 14 deadline. Marucci & Gaffney photographed the pricing portion of the SVC bid and provided a copy of the photo with the lawsuit.

The photo shows “multiple material errors and / or omissions” in the bid, the suit states. One error was not including a $25,000 allowance for miscellaneous required landscaping, the suit states. It also noted mathematical errors related to “unit-price extensions” in the SVC bid that it called an “irregularity or deviation” from the bidding requirements.

The suit defined a unit-price extension as “the well recognized in accounting” “unit cost of an item multiplied by the quantity.”

When SVC’s bid price is correctly calculated, its total is $861,981, which is $621 higher than Marucci & Gaffney’s bid, the suit states.

Marucci & Gaffney notified YSU of the issue in a Sept. 20 letter, and the university responded by saying SVC is “honoring its base bid of $810,000 for all of the work on the project,” and the university plans to award the contract to SVC.

The letter, which is attached to the lawsuit, states Steel Valley Contractors’ base bid was $810,000, and Marucci & Gaffney’s base bid was $861,360. It adds the instructions to bidders state the university “shall consider the base bid and the bid amounts for alternate, or alternates, which the owner decides in its sole discretion, to accept.”

The letter states Marucci & Gaffney is asking SVC’s bid be rejected “because of alleged mathematical errors in the calculation of unit-price items.”

But even though unit prices were requested on the bid, “YSU is not considering unit prices in evaluating the bids but is looking solely at the base bid amount,” the letter states.

But that does not account for the missing $25,000 allowance, and YSU’s decision gives SVC a competitive advantage, Marucci & Gaffney’s lawsuit states.

The suit asks a judge to issue a temporary, preliminary and permanent injunction preventing the university from awarding a contract to SVC or any other entity, preventing SVC from performing any work on the project and preventing YSU from making any payment to SVC for work on the project.

It also asks the court to issue a declaratory judgment indicating that YSU’s decision to award the contract to SVC “constitutes an abuse of discretion” and that YSU violated state bidding laws.

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – The wall came crumbling down on North Kansas Avenue hitting a parked car on its path to the street.

Matt Wiltz recorded video as demolition equipment knocked the top of a wall on 911 N. Kansas Avenue into the street. Bricks damaged a parked car across the street, covering it in dust.

Jenna Burghart recorded video down the block at the same time after seeing a crowd of people watching it be worked on before it came tumbling down into the road. It shows a truck passing by nearly getting hit.

“I saw people gathering around kind of the central area and we were just watching and seeing what was going on and decided, might want to pull out the camera. I know it’s been a big thing,” she said.

Building co-owner Dave Jackson fought the demolition for the past few years saying the structure was stable and asked the city to work with him to save the building.

Interim City Manager Bill Cochran said the event was due to the contractors’ actions not the state of the building. Something he said the city will take into consideration for future bids.

“People get caught up on hey, you’ve got to do the lowest bid, stuff like that and that’s not necessarily true. Lowest bid does come into play but also what you have to do is look into work performance, past performance and if they have the capacity to do the job and all those things come into consideration,” he said.

The contractor, Koenig Excavating and Grading out of Kansas City, will pay for the damage to the vehicle as part of their insurance.

Cochran reiterated the co-owners who own the land will have to pay for the demolition but not the damage to the vehicle.

“We will help the owner of the vehicle make sure that gets taken care of. We’ll do everything we can to help that owner of the vehicle. At this time, I don’t know the owner of the vehicle,” said Cochran.

Cochran stands by the city’s hiring. He said they met the criteria needed when they selected them, but the question now is why did the building fall forward into the street and not away from the public.

“Those are things we are looking at. At this point, the majority of the wall is down and so we won’t have to worry about it again fortunately with this particular situation but those are things now that we will now definitely take into consideration when we do certain demolitions in certain areas,” said Cochran.

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Topeka Interim City Manager Bill Cochran said Topeka police immediately informed him of equipment sending a wall falling into NOTO’s main road Wednesday.

A fence is around the site but that doesn’t stop walkers and drivers from going up and down the strip.

13 News has obtained two videos from people who witnessed the top part of a wall fall showing the debris hit a parked car and nearly hit one driving by.

Cochran said the car sustained substantial damage. The contractors, Koenig Excavation and Grading, will pay for the damage as part of their insurance. He said the event has nothing to do with the structure’s safety but with how the contractors acted.

He doesn’t know the amount or who owns the vehicle. The city will work with the vehicle’s owner to get them reimbursed.

“At this point, the majority of the wall is down and so we won’t have to worry about it again fortunately for this particular situation but those are things now we will definitely take into consideration when we do certain demolitions in certain areas.”

Cochran stands by the decision to hire Keonig to take down the building.

Building co-owner Dave Jackson fought the demolition saying the structure was stable and asked the city to work with him to save the building, but Cochran said again — it took years to get to this point.

Copyright 2022 WIBW. All rights reserved.

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YOUNGSTOWN — Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. has sued Youngstown State University over an asphalt, surface parking lot construction project on which the company bid, but was not selected.

The project is called the Arlington Parking Facility and will replace the former parking deck on Fifth Avenue between Lincoln Avenue and Arlington Street. The surface lot will have 163 parking spaces.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, alleges the university awarded the contract for construction of the lot to Steel Valley Contractors of Youngstown “in violation of competitive bidding laws and YSU’s request for proposals.”

The project is a “publicly funded public improvement project, which is subject to competitive bidding laws” that require YSU to award the contract to the “lowest responsive and responsible bidder” as detailed in Ohio law, the suit contends.

The suit’s goal is to stop the university from awarding or executing the contract, the suit states.

Awarding the contract to Steel Valley Contractors “would result in a higher price when SVC’s bid is properly tabulated and also sacrifices the integrity of the biding system,” the suit states.

Marucci & Gaffney of Youngstown and Steel Valley Contractors were the only bidders, and both companies submitted bids by the Sept. 14 deadline. Marucci & Gaffney photographed the pricing portion of the SVC bid and provided a copy of the photo with the lawsuit.

The photo shows “multiple material errors and / or omissions” in the bid, the suit states. One error was not including a $25,000 allowance for miscellaneous required landscaping, the suit states. It also noted mathematical errors related to “unit-price extensions” in the SVC bid that it called an “irregularity or deviation” from the bidding requirements.

The suit defined a unit-price extension as “the well recognized in accounting” “unit cost of an item multiplied by the quantity.”

When SVC’s bid price is correctly calculated, its total is $861,981, which is $621 higher than Marucci & Gaffney’s bid, the suit states.

Marucci & Gaffney notified YSU of the issue in a Sept. 20 letter, and the university responded by saying SVC is “honoring its base bid of $810,000 for all of the work on the project,” and the university plans to award the contract to SVC.

The letter, which is attached to the lawsuit, states Steel Valley Contractors’ base bid was $810,000, and Marucci & Gaffney’s base bid was $861,360. It adds the instructions to bidders state the university “shall consider the base bid and the bid amounts for alternate, or alternates, which the owner decides in its sole discretion, to accept.”

The letter states Marucci & Gaffney is asking SVC’s bid be rejected “because of alleged mathematical errors in the calculation of unit-price items.”

But even though unit prices were requested on the bid, “YSU is not considering unit prices in evaluating the bids but is looking solely at the base bid amount,” the letter states.

But that does not account for the missing $25,000 allowance, and YSU’s decision gives SVC a competitive advantage, Marucci & Gaffney’s lawsuit states.

The suit asks a judge to issue a temporary, preliminary and permanent injunction preventing the university from awarding a contract to SVC or any other entity, preventing SVC from performing any work on the project and preventing YSU from making any payment to SVC for work on the project.

It also asks the court to issue a declaratory judgment indicating that YSU’s decision to award the contract to SVC “constitutes an abuse of discretion” and that YSU violated state bidding laws.

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YOUNGSTOWN — Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. has sued Youngstown State University over an asphalt, surface parking lot construction project on which the company bid, but was not selected.

The project is called the Arlington Parking Facility and will replace the former parking deck on Fifth Avenue between Lincoln Avenue and Arlington Street. The surface lot will have 163 parking spaces.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, alleges the university awarded the contract for construction of the lot to Steel Valley Contractors of Youngstown “in violation of competitive bidding laws and YSU’s request for proposals.”

The project is a “publicly funded public improvement project, which is subject to competitive bidding laws” that require YSU to award the contract to the “lowest responsive and responsible bidder” as detailed in Ohio law, the suit contends.

The suit’s goal is to stop the university from awarding or executing the contract, the suit states.

Awarding the contract to Steel Valley Contractors “would result in a higher price when SVC’s bid is properly tabulated and also sacrifices the integrity of the biding system,” the suit states.

Marucci & Gaffney of Youngstown and Steel Valley Contractors were the only bidders, and both companies submitted bids by the Sept. 14 deadline. Marucci & Gaffney photographed the pricing portion of the SVC bid and provided a copy of the photo with the lawsuit.

The photo shows “multiple material errors and / or omissions” in the bid, the suit states. One error was not including a $25,000 allowance for miscellaneous required landscaping, the suit states. It also noted mathematical errors related to “unit-price extensions” in the SVC bid that it called an “irregularity or deviation” from the bidding requirements.

The suit defined a unit-price extension as “the well recognized in accounting” “unit cost of an item multiplied by the quantity.”

When SVC’s bid price is correctly calculated, its total is $861,981, which is $621 higher than Marucci & Gaffney’s bid, the suit states.

Marucci & Gaffney notified YSU of the issue in a Sept. 20 letter, and the university responded by saying SVC is “honoring its base bid of $810,000 for all of the work on the project,” and the university plans to award the contract to SVC.

The letter, which is attached to the lawsuit, states Steel Valley Contractors’ base bid was $810,000, and Marucci & Gaffney’s base bid was $861,360. It adds the instructions to bidders state the university “shall consider the base bid and the bid amounts for alternate, or alternates, which the owner decides in its sole discretion, to accept.”

The letter states Marucci & Gaffney is asking SVC’s bid be rejected “because of alleged mathematical errors in the calculation of unit-price items.”

But even though unit prices were requested on the bid, “YSU is not considering unit prices in evaluating the bids but is looking solely at the base bid amount,” the letter states.

But that does not account for the missing $25,000 allowance, and YSU’s decision gives SVC a competitive advantage, Marucci & Gaffney’s lawsuit states.

The suit asks a judge to issue a temporary, preliminary and permanent injunction preventing the university from awarding a contract to SVC or any other entity, preventing SVC from performing any work on the project and preventing YSU from making any payment to SVC for work on the project.

It also asks the court to issue a declaratory judgment indicating that YSU’s decision to award the contract to SVC “constitutes an abuse of discretion” and that YSU violated state bidding laws.

WELLFLEET — Neighbors of a contractor’s yard at the corner of Route 6 and Old Wharf Road have asked the zoning board of appeals to reverse an interim building inspector’s decision to allow the business to operate there.

A hearing on their request to overturn Victor Staley’s November authorization is set for the zoning board’s Jan. 13 meeting. A half dozen neighbors, represented by attorney David Reid, filed the appeal; they include Christine Woods, Patricia and Antonio Lemme, Ashley Burns Keefe, and Laura Kozak of Wixom Avenue, and Sanatkumar and Shilaben Tankalwala of Old Wharf Road.

Whatever the outcome of this week’s hearing, the case is likely to end up in court, where there is already a pending suit related to the contractor’s yard.

Staley, who is now Wellfleet’s alternate building inspector, said Monday that he has already begun to receive complaints from neighbors about noise and vibration caused by heavy equipment on the site.

The neighbors’ alarm about use of the site began when Great White Realty Group, a then newly formed company owned by Donna and Steve DiGiovanni of Truro, cut down three-fourths of the trees on the lot, removed topsoil, and began grading on Jan. 9, 2021, the day after closing on the purchase of the property.

The DiGiovannis had no permits for the work, done in anticipation of leasing the site to GFM Enterprises, an excavating company based in Dennis that specializes in septic systems.

GFM has begun using the site as a satellite contractor’s yard. As part of its operation, GFM is storing dump trucks, 10-wheelers, a loader, and skid steers on-site, along with supplies like outdoor containers, piping, and precast risers.

After the land was cleared a year ago, the town’s then-Building Inspector Paul Fowler issued a stop-work order. And when the owners’ attorney, Ben Zehnder, appealed that ruling to the ZBA, nearly 100 residents called in to the meeting to protest Great White Realty’s plan. Concerns ranged from dust and noise to safety issues and traffic snarls.

Great White Realty has leased the land it cleared on Route 6 in Wellfleet to Dennis-based GFM Enterprises, which has begun storing equipment and supplies on the site. (Photo by Cam Blair)

Fowler said the work being conducted constituted “quarry, sandpit, gravel pit, and soil stripping,” which is prohibited in the commercial zone where the site is located.

The ZBA upheld Fowler’s order as well as his determination that the DiGiovannis’ proposed uses of the property required special permits. The board then denied Great White Realty’s request for the permits.

But Great White Realty susequently filed a suit, currently pending in state Land Court, to overturn the ZBA decisions.

Activity on the property was on hold until November. Fowler had left his position when interim Building Inspector Staley gave his permission in mid-November for GFM to run a contractor’s yard, storing its vehicles, equipment, and supplies on the lot.

A request to have supplies like stone and soil on-site, which the town maintains requires a special permit for bulk material, has been put on hold by Great White.

GFM has put up its sign, moved in its equipment, and created two access points from Route 6, according to Staley, who said he believed the state had authorized only a single curb cut. He expected that issue, along with the neighbors’ complaints, to be discussed by the ZBA at its hearing this week.

The abutters’ attorney, David Reid, did not respond to calls or emails for comment. Two of the abutters, Christine Woods and Laura Kozak, did respond but declined to comment.

Revising the Bylaw

While the planning board is not involved in this dispute, its members hope to address what they now see as a deficiency in the town’s zoning bylaw that allowed such a major operation to open without any special permits required.

Planning board Chair Gerald Parent warned his panel that Wellfleet could become “the Wild West,” with other contractors opening similar operations after seeing what was happening at 1065 Route 6.

“As long as I’ve been dealing with zoning, I never ever envisioned the intensity of that contractor’s yard and what it’s going to do,” said Parent at the planning board’s Jan. 5 meeting. “In my mind, if that hole is not plugged quickly, that could happen again, not only in the commercial district but in the C2, which is mostly residential.”

Wellfleet’s C2, or Commercial 2, district provides for “small and moderate-scale business development,” according to the town’s zoning bylaw.

The problem, Parent said, is that “a piece of equipment, to a landscaper, is a lawn mower,” while “for a contractor in an excavating business, it’s a 40-foot tractor and an excavator.”

An initial easy fix would be to upgrade the use chart in the bylaw to require a special permit for a contractor’s yard, Parent said.

The board voted to hold a public hearing on the proposed change some time in February so that voters could act on it at the April annual town meeting. Once that’s done, the planning board could take some time to add “a little meat and potatoes” to the definition of a contractor’s yard, said Parent.

If a special permit is required in the future, the ZBA would be the board to act on it and attach conditions. According to Parent, Staley “felt as a building inspector, this would have taken a tremendous burden off him for decisions.”

Dan’s Excavating and subcontractors will replace about 24 mi. of pavement on I-275.
(Michigan Department of Transportation photo)

I-275 is a major thoroughfare that skirts the western edge of Detroit and serves as a major north-south corridor for traffic flowing from Ohio to Metro Detroit and beyond. Several segments of the road are in their death throes. Pounded by heavy truck traffic and brutalized by the freeze-thaw issues, the road required frequent patching and pothole repairs.

When state funding became available for infrastructure work, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) sprang into action, initiating a project to fix the road over a four-year period. At a cost of $266 million, the freeway will be repaired from Will Carlton Road to Eureka Road and rebuilt from Eureka Road to 6 Mile Road, a distance of 24 mi. The project was launched last summer.

“The concrete pavement was 40 years old and blowing up,” said Jeff Horne, construction contracts project manager of MDOT. “The road was eating up our maintenance budget with a continued need for patching and pothole repair. Since more than 190,000 vehicles per day are using this highway, repairs caused increased congestion as well as unhappy motorists. We want a rebuilt road that will last.”

The highway was one of the last continuously reinforced concrete roads in the state. More than 40 subcontractors are required for the job, with Dan’s Excavating serving as the prime contractor.

Recycling

Green construction practices were important on this project.

“The old concrete roadway was crushed on-site and mixed with cement and water to form a Cement Treated Permeable Base [CPTB] layer,” said Horne. “Our cross-section of the new freeway is 10 inches of natural aggregate; 6 inches of CTPB; and 12 inches of nonreinforced concrete.”

The enormous project will require enough concrete to build a 12-ft.-wide highway lane from Detroit to Grand Rapids (approximately 174 mi.). Concrete pavement and cement treated base will be constructed by AJAX Paving Industries.

Last year’s work consisted mainly of patching and rehabbing 10 mi. of roadway, along with preparing 14 mi. of roadway to get ready for this year’s work. This effort included widening and resurfacing shoulders and building crossovers to facilitate traffic during stage construction.

John Morse, project manager, and the team at Dan’s Excavating worked with MDOT to finalize a plan for rerouting all traffic to the northbound lanes for this year’s work. This enabled workers to push the project ahead with fewer interruptions and with greater safety for both workers and motorists.

This new arrangement achieved many efficiencies for workers and planners on the project.

“Our team was able to use the 14 crossover ramps on this section of the project to get our trucks in and out of the job more quickly,” said Morse.

The plan is for the work this year to complete the rebuild for 14 mi. southbound, then switch traffic over onto the fresh pavement next year. Morse hopes that his team will be able to complete the work on the northbound section in 2023.

C.A. Hull, a large bridge builder, will handle work on 65 bridges that are part of the project.

“The bridges have required a variety of work, including grinding down epoxy layers that were failing and providing new epoxy,” said Morse. “The epoxy keeps moisture out of the bridge structure and provides a more long-lasting bridge. Hull has also worked to repair the foundations of many of the bridges. Many of them were in a sorry state.”

The excavation and rebuilding will require enormous work and raw materials. In brief:

• 1.2 million cu. yds. of excavation
• 1 million sq. yds. of 12-in. concrete pavement for the road
• 1.2 million sq. yds. of open-graded drainage course
• 1.2 million sq. yds. of cement treated drainage course

“I am familiar with the road since I drive it frequently for bidding and overseeing our projects in the area,” said Morse. “Motorists are going to see a big difference once this project is completed.”

Equipment used on the project includes:

• Cat 390, 374, 349 and 320 excavators
• Cat 740 water trucks
• Cat D6 dozers
• John Deere 750 dozers
• Komatsu WA320 wheel loaders
• GOMACO GP 2600 slipform pavers

CEG