$78,900.00 Road Contract Altered; CUT gets FREE Maintenance
Jul 8, 2017 13:33:44 GMT -7
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Post by Admin on Jul 8, 2017 13:33:44 GMT -7
Church Universal and Triumphant gets FREE Road Maintenance
2017 Road Contract Worth $78,900.00 is Mysteriously Altered
2017 Road Contract Worth $78,900.00 is Mysteriously Altered
In a startling turn of events the Forum has learned that the 2017 Spring Road Work contract was mysteriously altered after the Road Committee voted to approve it. Additionally a decision was made to use thousands of dollars of landowner assessment funds to pay for maintenance on private roads located on Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) property.
It appeared that road work would be better managed in 2017. In previous years landowner provided road money was always spent for CUT owned roads and fresh gravel frequently appeared in front of church affiliated landowner properties. In 2016 the only loads of gravel and the only maintenance provided to High South past Spectec was on property church affiliated landowner's owned; parcel 84. Coincidentally two former GLA directors owned 50% of the parcel. One owned 4 other parcels and thus was able to cast 5 votes in the annual election.
Similar landowner discrimination occurred with 2016/2017 winter snow plowing. As a result one road committee chair was stripped of his position while the other resigned. Several landowners then joined the Road Committee and a Road Advisory Group chaired by Claudette Dirkers and Walter Wunsch was created. They took the best interests of all landowners to heart and created a new Road Policy designed to serve all landowners with the best possible service within the constraints of the GLA budget. The new Road Policy was debated and accepted with changes at a May 30th Road Committee meeting. The GLA Board sent it out for a 30 day comment period and will vote on acceptance at their July 17th, 2017 meeting.
The Road Committee embraced the new road policy and used it as the basis for the spring gravel and grading contract. The North Glastonbury part of the June 28th, 2017 contract states:
It was agreed at the June 27th, 2017 Road Committee meeting that no one should supervise the crew as this would change the status of a contractor's employees to GLA employees. Chair Dennis Riley offered to write the contract. The contract was emailed to all members of the Road Committee for comments and an informal vote on June 28th. Changes were made and members agreed to them. The crew from Adkins Construction started work on North Glastonbury roads early in the morning of June 29th.
The first road they were instructed to work on was the gravel portion of Sirius Drive; a private sub-division road on CUT property that is NOT included in the original contract. Director Leo Keeler carefully researched the history of Sirius Drive, Aries and the loop by Liberty Hall. He discovered that large parts of the roads were not platted GLA roads and thus per our covenants the landowners were not responsible for maintaining them. Read the full story at the preceding link and be sure to scroll to the bottom for Director Keeler's detailed analysis.
It appeared that road work would be better managed in 2017. In previous years landowner provided road money was always spent for CUT owned roads and fresh gravel frequently appeared in front of church affiliated landowner properties. In 2016 the only loads of gravel and the only maintenance provided to High South past Spectec was on property church affiliated landowner's owned; parcel 84. Coincidentally two former GLA directors owned 50% of the parcel. One owned 4 other parcels and thus was able to cast 5 votes in the annual election.
Similar landowner discrimination occurred with 2016/2017 winter snow plowing. As a result one road committee chair was stripped of his position while the other resigned. Several landowners then joined the Road Committee and a Road Advisory Group chaired by Claudette Dirkers and Walter Wunsch was created. They took the best interests of all landowners to heart and created a new Road Policy designed to serve all landowners with the best possible service within the constraints of the GLA budget. The new Road Policy was debated and accepted with changes at a May 30th Road Committee meeting. The GLA Board sent it out for a 30 day comment period and will vote on acceptance at their July 17th, 2017 meeting.
The Road Committee embraced the new road policy and used it as the basis for the spring gravel and grading contract. The North Glastonbury part of the June 28th, 2017 contract states:
- Clear existing ditches along all platted roads.
- Fill all potholes and remove protruding rocks from the surface of platted gravel roads.
- Twenty (20) double truckloads of road mix – Capricorn(gravel portion) 10 loads, Aquarius Loop 1 load, Pisces Way 1 load, Orion 2 loads, Gemini Road to Starlight Lane 2 loads, Venus Way 2 loads, Mercury Lane 1 load and Taurus Road 1 load.
- Grade all platted gravel roads. The platted roads have changed in North Glastonbury. They are: Capricorn, Aquarius Loop, Pisces Way, Gemini Road, Orion Way, Mercury Lane and Taurus Road. Note: The gravel section of Sirius and Golden Age Village (GAV) roads are NOT platted roads.
- Total cost not to exceed $30,900. The list of locations above is in priority order. When the money is used, please stop work. Richard Johnson will be your contact for North Glastonbury.
It was agreed at the June 27th, 2017 Road Committee meeting that no one should supervise the crew as this would change the status of a contractor's employees to GLA employees. Chair Dennis Riley offered to write the contract. The contract was emailed to all members of the Road Committee for comments and an informal vote on June 28th. Changes were made and members agreed to them. The crew from Adkins Construction started work on North Glastonbury roads early in the morning of June 29th.
The first road they were instructed to work on was the gravel portion of Sirius Drive; a private sub-division road on CUT property that is NOT included in the original contract. Director Leo Keeler carefully researched the history of Sirius Drive, Aries and the loop by Liberty Hall. He discovered that large parts of the roads were not platted GLA roads and thus per our covenants the landowners were not responsible for maintaining them. Read the full story at the preceding link and be sure to scroll to the bottom for Director Keeler's detailed analysis.
CUT Wants Lifetime Free Maintenance for Church Owned Roads
The Forum has learned that Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) attorney Gregory Bodwell sent an email on June 28th at 10:16 PM to Director Keeler, GLA President Dennis Riley and the entire GLA Board after speaking with Director Dan Kehoe. He attached a copy of a rough draft agreement made between the GLA Board and CUT in August of 1998. The document has many crossed out and initialized sections. Handwritten notes adorn the margins and often ask for deletions and clarifications. One crossed out section requires the GLA to maintain all Golden Age Village roads. It is clearly just a draft and is not notarized or accurately dated. Most of the agreement details work the church still had to do on Glastonbury roads. However one section demands that the GLA accept maintenance forever for church owned roads, Aries and Sirius Drive, that connect to the Glastonbury road network. The document offers no compensation for those services.
After the letter from attorney Bodwell was received it is not clear if the GLA Board voted to spend 2017 landowner assessment money on church owned roads or if President Dennis Riley acted unilaterally. The Forum believes that the proper course of action would have been for the GLA Board to consult an attorney and let the courts decide if the rough draft 1998 document had any legal merit. Subsequently the contract with Mike Adkins was ignored and road maintenance began in earnest for church owned roads. The gravel portion of Sirius Drive was graded and rolled. Fresh ditches were cut on both sides of the road. The church loop and Aries drive were graded and rolled. The church owned portion of the paved section of Sirius Drive received extensive ditch work.
CUT which operates a commercial venture called Golden Age Village and has services and meetings in buildings that access Sirius Drive and Aries, will not be charged a penny for maintaining those roads. Golden Age Village is a part of Glastonbury and thus pays assessments. The Teaching Center, the chapel, Liberty Hall and other buildings on parcels 3 and 4 are NOT part of Glastonbury. The assessments paid by Golden Age Village, like all landowner assessments are meant to maintain the platted roads. Unfortunately for 2017 100% of the work performed on church owned roads will be paid for with GLA landowner assessments. If the GLA Board refuses to litigate the draft document, then landowners will continue to pay for church owned private roads forever.
The financial consequences could be crippling to Glastonbury landowners. Almost 200 acres of church owned land borders Sirius Drive and Aries. That land could be developed and/or sold by the church. The new landowners would not have to abide by our governing documents nor would they have to pay assessments to the GLA because they would not be part of Glastonbury. However they could use the church owned sections of Aries and Sirius Drive and the Glastonbury landowners would have to pay for perpetual maintenance. The funneling of landowner assessment money for almost 20 years to fund church owned roads has impoverished sections of our community. Some platted roads have not seen maintenance for 20 years and land values have suffered.
2017 Road Contract Was Mysteriously Altered
It has also been discovered by the Forum that someone altered the June 28th contract that the Road Committee members voted to accept. The Forum viewed a signed PDF copy of the contract with Mike Adkins and it contained a phrase not in the original contract. The hastily written phrase stated "Richard will be tha(sic) approval authority for final gravel location and amounts." So hastily was this added that the word "the" was misspelled as "tha". This phrase completely negated the allocated gravel placement listed for North Glastonbury in the original contract and approved by the Road Committee members. It left gravel placement up to the whims of one person on the Road Committee who just happened to be a long term landowner affiliated with the church.
The Road Committee was NOT informed of the contract change and landowners were not given an opportunity to comment on it by contacting road committee members or directors. The Forum only learned about the change on July 6th; one week after the road work commenced in North Glastonbury. We know that a copy of the contract was emailed to the GLA Board at 9:59 AM on July 6th. We do not know if this was the altered version or the original version. The GLA Board has the authority to approve contracts and spend landowner's money. If the contract was altered before they received it, criminal charges of fraud may apply to the person(s) who surreptitiously changed the contract. The trust of landowners was violated once again.
We will follow up with an article on how landowner money was actually spent for gravel and grading North Glastonbury platted roads.
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