3 Stooges? 4? 6? 10? ? Even HAD THE COPS CALLED ON ME!

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

OK, one of the turn offs to that group was right next to the meters.
Two I was talking about disconnecting the pipes that run from the meter to the building not from the main to the meter-hence you turn off the meter and then unscrew the pipe from the meter-don't have to pull it from the ground, don't have to turn off the main, don't have to do anything but to seperate the pipe from the meter-takes about 2 minutes with a pipewrench-the meter stays where it is at and if someone did turn the meter back on water would just pour into the hole.

Turns out the main there was not as big as first thought-probably a 4 inch as the crew thought.

As to finding out where all the connections were and anything else running on the site the Insurance company had people marking everything that ran underground for the 6 months since the fire because they didn't need say a fiberoptic/phone line ripped through (BTW the only underground lines were gas and water and sewer all other services were above ground.).

I still stand by the three stooges-will be adding more pics soon with the geyser and other actions.

BTW as of yesterday nothing has been done by the water crew-even left a chunk of copper pipe on the ground which I am amazed has not been grabbed by a copper rat since it is worth at least $6 in copper value.

AND THAT CREW WAS TOLD BY THE WATER GUY WHO SHOWED UP ON THE FIRST DAY OF DEMOLITION THAT WATER SERVICE WAS TAKEN CARE OF! I WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE WHEN HE TOLD THE HEAD OF THE DEMOLITION COMPANY THAT! They didn't get to that part of the block where the connections were for several days! THEY ASSUMED THE STOOGE KNEW WHAT THE R%&*( HE WAS DOING Because his screw up caused them hours in delay and that crew costs $$$$$$ to operate when you have over a $1 million in equipment on site!

[Tapper]

Well, at the risk of being contrary on Christmas eve, just a couple more points.

The City is responsible for water service only to the meter. Anything south of the meter, is premise plumbing, and is the property of (and responsibility of) the property owner. City crews will not work on plumbing beyond the meter, and that includes disconnecting it. It was (and is) the responsibility of the property owner to disconnect the premise plumbing prior to demolition. If you think about this, you'll realize it's so. Buildings and houses are hooked up using all sorts of plumbing systems and schemes. Why would the City assume responsibility and liability for modifying property it doesn't own, especially since it has no way of knowing what else is attached to the plumbing on the property side? They won't work on the plumbing at your house, and they won't do it for commercial property either.

I don't know the full details of what happened, but I can tell you this with authority: If the contractor did not disconnect the premise plumbing, and if the act of demolishing that premise plumbing caused the water line break, then the Contractor will be held liable for the damages. I say this as a person with 20 years experience managing and digging in municipal rights-of-way.

If I were going to guess, the City will leave the repair partially completed until the demolition is complete. It would just add to the confusion on site, and they may need to move the meter for whatever is going to be constructed there later. Likewise, I imagine they expect the contractor to backfill the hole.

I don't say all this to make you feel wrong. Rather, I hope it will help you to realize that you have seen only a small part of the story, and that the parts you didn't see put the pieces of the puzzle together in a way that makes things different. Those City guys you saw - their job is to fix broken pipes. Many of them are very junior level employees, often with very limited education and political abilities. They may or may not be bright bulbs, but they do work a difficult job full of risks and problems you are not aware of. They don't deserve to be called stooges. Most of them are just trying to feed their families, even though it often means working on days like today, wading in water filled with feces, used tampons, used toilet paper, and anything else people flush. They earn their money brother, believe me.

Hey - peace on earth and goodwill towards men, right?

I recall when I worked as a ROW manager for a local City. The water department hired a new kid who was a real go-getter. He was always first to volunteer to go down in the tough holes, the big sewer breaks, and he'd really put his back into it. Model employee in every way.

One day, one of the Asst. Directors called him into his office, and presented him with a raise, and a congratulations for a job well done. During the course of the conversation that followed, the Director mentioned that he was very impressed with the young man's willingness to brave the raw sewage in order to get the job done, since most guys hated to do it. He averred that most people just didn't like poo.

The young man looked at him, eyes growing wide, blinked twice, and said: "You mean that's sh*t down there?"

He quit the next day.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Well YOU ARE WRONG PERIOD!
AN ORDER FOR DISCONNECT WAS REQUESTED!
IT WAS NOT AN ORDER FOR TERMINATION OF SERVICE!
WATER PERSON CAME TO THE SITE-which has been in the news (6 TV STATIONS and 2 Radio Stations at least were there that day)-Then TOLD CONTRACTOR THAT THE WATER WAS TAKEN CARE OF! (never even saw a work order in his hand in fact the kid only had a meter key and a meter reading box- and a stick! no pipe wrench).
CITY SCREWED UP! PERIOD!!!!!

You can try to defend their incompetence if you wish but they were incompetent!
BTW The LOT IS TOTALLY FILLED AND GRADED TO FINISH SPECS FRIDAY-All EQUIPMENT WAS OFF SITE BY 3 PM Yesterday (trailer removed at that time actual bulldozer left site at 2:30 because I was there watching him load it and leave).

WATER DEPT has not been by to do any work since initial disconnect.

I had been on that site for over 8 days straight and talked to the demolition company owners many times per day and THEY DO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING and they are not newbies to the biz. If you remember when Walker Texas Ranger blew up several houses in Irving, well these guys were the ones who came in and cleared the site after the explosions including having to climb trees to remove debri from branches.

There are a lot more pics involved than what have been posted so far and they will be added to that album as I get to them.

Oh if you were there you would have called them stooges because it was funny that the break had been for over 30 hours, 2 supervisors had been there and then these guys are trying to turn off a main break by trying to reach in and turn off the meter? NOT ONCE NOT TWICE BUT OVER 9 TIMES AND IT BEING 3 Different guys! People with 3 brain cells after the first guy would go turn off the main (one of the connections was less than 6 ft from the break) but it took them over an hour once on site to turn the main off! Photos are time stamped and when I get the rest up that can be verified.

Jeeze 6 months to figure out the location of the water lines?
36 hours after last service was used-yes one business was open until Sunday but only ONE and there were 6 meters there in a row- a water guy comes out and doesn't do his job.

BTW if the guy said the WATER WAS CUT OFF AND NOT THAT THE WATER WAS TAKEN CARE OF the demolition guys would have pulled the meter covers to check to see if the lines were still attached but they were told that it WAS TAKEN CARE OF by the Water Dept Employee and they knew that a disconnection of service was issued. BTW there were multiple other meters around the site (I counted at least 5 others outside of that group) and they were ALL DISCONNECTED! The Demolition guys didn't pull any of those covers because the job was done right!

Then When the Main was broken it took them so long to even see how bad it was! Then Leave because a couple pics were being snapped of them?
Then 24 hours later drive up to look at it again but still not even step out of the truck? Then try to drive off when the lead contractor is running towards your truck?
Then several hours later entering a site ILLEGALLY!! PER OSHA REGULATIONS!!! Clamshell demolition was still going on on site! THEN NOT EVEN ATTEMPTING TO TALK TO THE CONTRACTOR ON SITE AND THEN WHEN THE COPS COME OUT TRYING TO ACT ALL BIG AND TOUGH BECAUSE THEY WORK FOR THE CITY!!!

I STAND BY ALL THAT I SAID ABOVE!

3 STOOGES or is it 10?

[Tapper]

Well, as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.