Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

New complaints arise about Chelsea no-bid road work

BY MECHELE COOPER Staff Writer

CHELSEA -- New allegations of unnecessary no-bid road work surfaced Tuesday as the town braces for its first official meeting since the arrest of its top official.

Two Chelsea residents said Tuesday a town-hired contractor damaged their properties doing unnecessary work. But -- in a familiar refrain -- they said officials denied their attempts at obtaining public records on the projects.

"There are many, many people who are interested in that information," Stephen Langsdorf, a lawyer hired to represent the town, said Tuesday, referring to town road contracting records.

Langsdorf noted the Kennebec County Sheriff's Department is involved in an ongoing probe of the town's contracting. When added to the increasing interest from citizens, he said requests for information on roads had become "burdensome to the clerk's office."

Any system to allow open access to information would have to be considered along with the existence of the criminal probe, he said. "Especially when the sheriff's office is involved," Langsdorf said. "They need to keep a close eye on things."

One of the items on tonight's agenda, therefore, will be a question of whether to set up a system by which people can have access to the records that could run alongside an investigation of the town's road work.

Citizens may also debate an audit of town finances tonight, and could vote whether to set a special election to fill the seat left vacant when Selectman Tanya Condon resigned in November 2010.

Meanwhile, Shirl James and Judy Skehan said Tuesday town-hired crews marred their properties needlessly.

They were reacting to a report in Sunday's Kennebec Journal detailing a 2006 town job on Dondero Road that puzzled neighbors as it grew into a $77,198, three-month rebuild by Marshall Swan, a town contractor.

Swan trenched her road and did a "wonderful job" a few years ago, James said.

But then he removed an old culvert from in front of her pasture and never replaced it, she said. Two years later, he returned, allegedly to haul away rich loam from a pasture on her Wellman Road property, which he then allegedly brought to his house.

She wants the dirt back.

"I followed the truck and they took it home and dumped it around the swimming pool he was installing," James alleged Tuesday. "We had draft horses in our field and it was beautiful topsoil. The big rock in front of their home, that came from our land. He knew he was going to put in a pool and that he was going to come back and get that soil. That's why he never put the culvert back in. I'm still livid."

James said she did not file a police report.

"I didn't know I should have made a formal complaint about it," she said. "I assumed the town would take action. But it fell on deaf ears."

She said the Feb. 10 arrest Carole Swan -- Marshall Swan's wife and the chairman of the Chelsea Board of Selectmen -- has given people in town an opportunity to come forward and tell their stories about questionable town road contracting.

"People have really been abused in this community," she said. "It's very sad."

Brian and Judy Skehan said Marshall Swan spent more than a week ditching and repairing a slope near their Intervale Road property in November 2010.

Judy Skehan said she believes the job was not put out to bid because it was declared an emergency.

Road work in Chelsea must go to competitive bid if a job is worth $10,000 or more, or is an emergency.

"This was not an emergency measure," Judy Skehan said. "My husband and I had been asking that the repairs be done for approximately two years."

Susan Sargent, former town manager, said members of a town citizens' group that has been monitoring the Intervale Road project -- and others -- since last fall believe Swan did questionable work on a number of roads in 2010.

"It's our understanding, although we have been unable to see the warrants, that Marshall made $30,000 for road work last fall," Sargent said. "We all suspected, but can't prove, the money made up for a bid he didn't get."

Sherrill Hallett, a member of the citizens' group and of the Chelsea school board, alleged Swan has been "stacking" work on the contracts he is awarded.

"Stacking" refers to the process of winning a project award by low bid, then having subcontractors bill the town separately for the same project.

"I was told by Tanya Condon that the last three jobs were given to Marshall Swan Construction and that there was stacking going on," Hallett said. "Materials on the same job were bought separately in order to keep below the $10,000 ordinance threshold."

Condon declined comment.

Hallett, too, said town staff prevented her from looking at warrants showing what the town paid for road projects in 2010.

"They have been effectively blocking people from looking at any warrants," Hallett said. "I've been out to the Town Office twice and (Town Clerk Flavia "Cookie" Kelley) has not allowed me to look at the warrants because of scheduling conflicts," she said. "This has happened to other taxpayers, along with other stonewalling tactics that have kept citizens from scrutinizing the expenditure of their tax dollars."

Former Selectman Rick Danforth agreed town staff has prevented taxpayers from seeing records on road projects.

"We had two people scheduled to go in and meet with them (to review the warrants) and then (Carole Swan's arrest) story broke. We got a message from (Selectman) Mike Pushard and the sheriff that we probably shouldn't go in and look at the documents, which made sense."

Carole Swan, 52, was arrested two weeks ago and charged with aggravated forgery, theft and improper compensation after allegedly arranging a kickback involving the towns purchase of road sand.

Swan continues to serve on the three-person Board of Selectmen, with Selectman Michael Pushard.

She faces up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines on the forgery charge, five years in prison and $5,000 in fines on the attempted theft charge, and six months in jail and $1,000 in fines on the improper-compensation charge.

Marshall Swan did not return phone calls Monday from the Kennebec Journal regarding the Wellman and Intervale road projects.

City Editor Bob Mentzinger contributed to this report.

Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, ext. 408

mcooper@centralmaine.com

The Board of Selectmen will meet tonight at 6 p.m. at Chelsea Elementary School. Residents will have the chance to ask questions and express concerns in light of the Feb. 10 arrest of Selectman Carole Swan. The agenda also includes discussion of a townwide audit and the scheduling of a special election to fill a board vacancy.