Halifax Paving
R, Woodman—Thanks for the information. ……..
I think you are right, that FOI requests will be the only way to get any facts on the matter. In a May 3, 2005 Change Order, referenced in the current City documents, Halifax Paving agreed to build a second, 100-acre lake with berms, outfalls, and road repair in exchange for fill dirt. Quentin L Hampton found the exchange to be fair and reasonable and in keeping with the existing contract for the first lake, therefore no bid process required. I wonder if QLH also inspected the “dirty” berm you saw and reported to your boss? I do not believe there was a performance bond since that is the focus of the meeting today at 1:30.
Since it is not otherwise stated, I assume Halifax is still responsible for delivering a completed lake by Dec 31, 2014. Seems like that might be overly optimistic given the past rate of progress.
I guess what bothers me most is that the City’s interests have taken a back seat to the interests of Halifax for a long time and that state of affairs is continuing today. For nine years they have been hauling dirt off City property and presumably selling it at other sites. Now we are told they are hauling dirt off City property and selling it at Trader Joe’s site and will be allowed to do so until no more dirt is needed there. Only then will they go back to work for the City. I wonder if maybe P & S Paving or D & W Paving would like the same deal next time they bid a job?
Everyone knows that Halifax Paving is a long-standing, family-controlled construction business in this area and, as such, would naturally have long-standing business associations with other local construction companies. (How’s that for dancing around the issue.) Those associations might even benefit the City if properly managed but that does not appear to be the case here.
Mike Gardner
618 Ruth St
Port Orange, FL 32127
386-527-1959
manddgardner@cfl.rr.com
If any one would know what was happening around the lake it would be Richard Woodman, he spent the last ten years or so of his city career, riding around the lake reading western novels on city’s time, and for doing this he got himself extra vacation time (yes the port orange residents paid for this). If you are going to quote someone please use someone that did not take a check from the city for years for doing absolutely nothing, and has a bit of honor, Richard has been a joke to those of us that have worked with him and know his true character He has embarrassed us, the employees of Port Orange for a long time. PS what costs has the city had for Halifax’s delays.. I’ll bet That Port Orange has spent many times more on the city money Richard Woodman has wasted.
What novels was he reading? He sure does know a lot about the problems that have been going on in the city. He is not afraid to tell the truth and use his real name. Talk about being a joke, look into the mirror. You are probably one of the other problems the city still has!
Richard Woodman is Recognized and honored by at least 95% of the Public Utilities department for his historical and institutional knowledge. I am going to make a prediction here. The anonymous person that posted this shit about Richard Woodman is one of two incompetents that are now being paid between $75,000 and $105,000 a year. I predict at least one of them will be fired from the city for a serious offence within the next month. I predict the other will either follow shortly thereafter or voluntarily retire while the going is good. Remember you could use some man training from Richard Woodman who has clearly identified himself and can back up what he is saying and transparently communicate it to our elected officials. This is unlike you who sit around down at city hall spouting vitriol about elected officials like Bob Ford and Drew Bastian. Your identities are known by the city council and in due time your identities will be known by all.
Dear Wasted: I wasn’t reading western novels. I was reading comic books based on a city with incompetent utilities management.
LOL…so true….so knowledgeable now….20 plus years on the job and never knew what was going on…duhhhhh..wait a minute……let me go ask my crew…….best thing that ever happened when RW left.
to talk about waste.
If what you say is true about woodman, tell us what you think of his bosses who allowed him to do such alleged non work.
accountability does not stop at woodman’s position. does it?
Since wasted anonymous likes to show his or her ignorance and make slanderous post about me let me tell you what I had been doing at the well field and reclaimed lakes since the early 80’s When the city acquired that very large piece of land I was assigned the responsibility of overseeing the land, the development of the well field, roads and drainage. Along with general oversight of it all from that point on. I was assigned these duties by the city manager and my department head. I was the liaison between the city, engineers and contractors throughout every project that has ever been done out there. Including the reclaimed lakes. When the city first acquired the land there was an active cattle ranch on the property. I was also the liaison between them and the city until their lease ran out. I also acted as the liaison between the hunting club, the forester and the city.
Some of my duties/responsibilities beyond maintaining the operation of our equipment and facilities was overseeing a weed spraying contract at he reclaimed lakes, security checks on our fence lines, checking for poachers and trespassers, checking fire breaks to make sure they were clear, and checking and reporting washed out roads. Fire breaks had to be kept clear so fire wouldn’t jump them and roads had to be cleared and maintained for access for fire equipment etc. I worked with the forester when controlled burns were done. I would come behind them a check for hot spots with fuel nearby and report them so they wouldn’t flair back up. I have spent a lot of time at the reclaimed lake due to the non stop problems. They overflowed lake B for al east a year or more and washed out one of the overflow structures that I discovered while I was reading western novels. That could have caused major failure of the berm. My boss told me that was my number one priority.
When all of the horizontal wells failed I was told to get what we could working as best we could. They didn’t want council to find out. So we had to figure out which wells we could get water out of. None could deliver water at the specified rate. I had to do research on the internet to find pumps that would work under the existing conditions. Once I Found the pumps I had to spec the pumps so that they work under the hydraulic conditions calculating total dynamic head and gallons per minute. I purchased the pumps and my crew installed them. We were able to withdraw some water but it was well below the original design rate and could not keep up with demand.
Yes I have spent a lot of time out there for many years doing what my bosses asked me to do. We have around 200 facilities and close to 4,000 pieces of equipment throughout the utilities systems that my crew and I were responsible for. We had great people that took ownership for their responsibilities to keep the utilities running 24-7 and they should be appreciated. As their former boss ,fellow worker and citizen of Port Orange I thank them all. They never let the city down.
they were supposed to stock pile material for the City and failed to do so. They sold it all. They were supposed to stockpile about 2 cy of fill to every 5 they sold. Well they sold the whole thing and when the city came in last year and asked where their material was they said it was in the ground.
They were extended time to excavate the City’s material only to have thus far only sold for their own profit.
In addition, they have exceeded the depth of the permit greatly. They have gone to 50+ feet on a 20+ permit. they are robbing the City blind and they are letting them.
It’s disgraceful
Sounds like someone should be contacting FDLE about this new scandal
ks–
In 2008 Halifax was given a contract extension until Dec 31, 2010 to finish the second lake and at the same time the amount of fill to be taken out was increased by one million yards. The way I am reading the documents, a new permit was issued by St Johns Water Management about that time and it was good until Feb 2011. Are you talking about them exceeding the new permit?
Mike Gardner
618 Ruth St
Port Orange, FL 32127
386-527-1959
manddgardner@cfl.rr.com
Didn’t they say at the council meeting that Halifax is back there digging again? If the permit expired in Feb. 2011. Have they renewed it? If not than they should not be digging. No excavation without a permit from St. Johns Water management.
I have a couple questions. Was our dirt used for fill for a development? If so, does anyone know who the developer is?
R. Woodman–
If it is the same meeting I’m thinking of, the 15-minute mini-meeting on June 30, Kisela said they were digging at the lake and taking the fill to Trader Joe’s site. Don’t know for sure any other developments where they have dropped dirt other than at the Coraci Ballfield back in 2008. Good question about the permit–I’ll look for a renewal in my nosing around.
Mike Gardner
618 Ruth St
Port Orange, FL 32127
386-527-1959
manddgardner@cfl.rr.com
Congratulations to the water plant personnel and other utilities employees for winning another state award from the FRWA (Florida Rural water association) for the water plant. As water system of the year. Great Job!!!!!!!
Mike you navigate better than I do. I was able to locate a document from the beginning of the excavation. I hope this helps. It looks to have been established prior to 2008 and is perhaps is the first change order to the initial contract.
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/regular/2005-05-03/14.pdf
Incoming2–Thanks for your reply
A few of us first noticed the Halifax Paving issue after reading about it on the agenda for the June 30th “mini-meeting” (a much shortened 15-minute special meeting of the Port Orange City Council). The Halifax agenda item was billed as an Amendment to a previous Agreement but read much more like a Restitution Agreement than a simple modification of anything existing. Turns out Halifax owes the City a lot of money and/or a lot of fill dirt, perhaps over a million dollars worth, and the City has known about it for years. Our initial simple questions as to how a million dollars can go unpaid or 7,000 loads of dirt can go missing quickly changed to “what’s been going on out there for close to a decade?” The project involves two huge man-made reclaimed water lakes (75 acres and 100 acres) located west and slightly south of the County landfill but it’s hard to find out much about them.
I’ve been able to find stuff on the City’s website as far back as the 2005 link that you reference and have requested info from the City on what happened prior to that (starting probably in 2003 or 2004?). From what R. Woodman wrote earlier today his first-hand knowledge goes back much farther than that. At any rate, I’ve attached the links I’ve been able to find and there may be more out there that I haven’t been able to find yet. Please look them over (AND ANYONE ELSE WHO READS THIS BLOG!) and let me know what you think. My impression is that somewhere in the 2008 to 2010 range things went south on the reclaimed lakes project since it seemed to pretty much drop from public view. That of course doesn’t mean that nothing was happening, only that we don’t have an easily accessible record of it. What has transpired recently–special meetings with no public comment and special meetings between the City Manager, City Attorney and Contractor, again with no public comment–could have been going on from 2008 to now and we would never have known about it.
We’ll try to ask some relevant questions at the July 17, 2014 meeting this Thursday but don’t really expect any answers. The only way answers will be forthcoming is if the Council demands them and so far they seem content to pretend nothing is wrong.
Halifax Paving Change Orders/Extensions, etc. to Fill Dirt Contract:
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/regular/2005-05-03/05032005commentary.htm#Item#14
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/regular/2007-11-13/11132007commentary.htm#Item#06
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/regular/2008-12-02/12022008commentary.htm#Item#13
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/regular/2013-12-10/commentary.htm#item25
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/special/2014-06-30/agenda.htm
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/special/2014-07-17/agenda.htm
Halifax Paving Settlement for Coraci Park Work:
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/regular/2009-03-24/03242009commentary.htm#Item#20
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/regular/2009-08-25/commentary.htm#Item#11
Halifax Paving Misc. Contracts:
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/regular/2007-12-11/12112007commentary.htm#Item#09
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/regular/2010-01-19/commentary.htm#Item#07
Please let me know your comments, impressions, etc.
Mike Gardner
618 Ruth St
Port Orange, FL 32127
386-527-1959
manddgardner@cfl.rr.com
Mike the reclaimed lake project did start around the 2003-2004 time frame.
Thanks again Mike. Now I am thoroughly confused. It appears the deal was made back in 2003/2004 like R. Woodman stated. The deal looked to be an agreement for the excavation of both lakes and should have been a done deal at that point in time. It appears that the agreement has been continued and changed several times in the last ten years. Deadlines, prices, durations, penalty clauses etc. and all were to be managed by the CM and the Mayor.
Does that initial “old” contract in fact mean that we will be hauling free dirt to Riverwalk for the developer? It appeared that was the original intent for some of the fill. It also appeared that the City roadways would be repaired after the digging and heavy equipment traffic hauling dirt. Mr. Woodman alluded to keeping up with roadways and hazards, berms, fire lines etc. It appears this has been a 10 year project.
I wonder if anyone has taken Mr. Woodmans duties over in overseeing the project? It looks like it may be water under the bridge. Or Dirt or Money or both. It would be nice to see a transparent time line including quantities and changes in agreements on this project over the last 10 years. The mayor wishes we would contact Department Heads directly so I wonder if Public Utilities could be tasked in granting this in laymans terms rather than consuming Councils time and effort. That’s the only logical chance of obtaining an understanding here.
I would hope this to be a simple task as I would think there was a project file of some sort maintained thus far until completion. It should be active and not an archive until completed if common sense were being utilized. I hope this task can be assigned at the July 17th meeting so this can be put to rest. Let’s see if we have any internal controls or overseeing of our outside contracts.
Thanks Again
would a department head really answer questions from a citizen? That might be advantageous for citizens. We would not have to hear or read an interpretation from cm or mayor and if the department head lied to a citizen perhaps we could take some accountability action. But I thought that approaching a departmental head was kind of like interfering with government operations. Oh, I get it. When bob ford does it, it is interfering, but when ted Noftall does it, it is OK? This mayor seems to be confused. Oh, this is all so complex and complicated and as I have been often told, I do not have all the facts. And whose fault is that?