Jax T.V. report says Lawtey sewer causing stink

[Dan Hildebran]

First Coast News reporter Ken Amaro brought his
cameraman and his bowtie to Lawtey last week to
highlight the City's troubled sewer project.

In a report titled "Lawtey's New Waste Water System
Causing Stink", the consumer reporter interviewed
Truman Drive resident Joey Luke, who complained about
the performance of the project's workers.

"I'm upset," said Mr. Luke. "I don't think the
contractor is doing it properly."

The Lawtey man also repeated a common complaint among
the town's residents, who wonder why workers move onto
a different section of the city before completing the
work they already started.

"They started over here," Mr. Luke told the reporter,
"they're not finished here and they start somewhere
else."

Mr. Amaro also interviewed Lawtey Mayor Jimmie Scott
about the project. Mr. Scott told the consumer
reporter that the City is considering all its options.
One of those options include replacing the project's
general contractor, B.A. Wilson, Construction, Inc.
Monday night, the Lawtey City Council discussed that
scenario, but the contractor, Bernard Wilson, pleaded
with council members to give him another chance.

Mr. Wilson pegged his subcontractors as the source of
the problems on Truman Drive. Lee Johnson, identified
as Mr. Wilson's job superintendent in the First Coast
News report, also laid fault at the feet of the subs.

"We decided to pull them off," Mr. Johnson told the
T.V. station.

But Monday night, city leaders were threatening to
pull Mr. Johnson, and his employer, off the project.

*******Writer's Note:*******
The City of Lawtey is the best show in the county when
it comes to political drama and Monday night was no
exception. When Jacksonville contractor Bernard
Wilson stood to ask City leaders to allow him to
remain on the Lawtey sewer project, he faced a hostile
group of homeowners, a mayor who obviously wanted him
fired, and a city attorney who had already drawn up
the papers to have him replaced. But Mr. Wilson
found a most unlikely ally on the city council.
Lawtey's most controversial politician, known for
bullying his opponents into submission, defended the
embattled contractor. I was shocked, and I don’t
think I was the only one.

In the May 9th issue of Starke News Week Magazine,
I'll tell you what Bernard Wilson said, and more
importantly, what he did, to convince Marvin Rosier to
come to his rescue. I'll also tell you about a
feature of Lawtey's sewer construction plan that cut
$1 million from the project's cost, but is now being
blamed for killing its construction. And finally,
I'll tell you why the fate of the project, and that of
B.A. Construction, Inc. won’t be decided in Lawtey's
City Hall, but rather in an Ocala office.

Starke News Week magazine is available at Starke's
Madison Street Pharmacy, Lawtey Shell, and other fine
retailers.


Deh