By Chris Kirkham
Times-Picayune
CHALMETTE, La. — The Louisiana attorney general’s office has initiated a criminal investigation into construction at an unfinished fire station in Chalmette that is being rebuilt with federal dollars.
The St. Bernard Parish Council met behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss the construction issues at Fire Station #5, which is being built by contractor JaRoy Construction of Kenner. JaRoy has another contract to build Fire Station #8 at the lower end of the parish.
“We have a site where there were some very significant problems that involve the potential health and safety of our first responders,” Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said.
Caldwell declined to go into specifics on what was uncovered at the site, but Parish President Craig Taffaro and Councilman Wayne Landry said the issues revolve around insufficient pilings driven into the ground to support the building’s foundation.
Taffaro said officials with the attorney general’s office have begun meeting with parish employees to discuss the contract. Architects and inspectors on the project informed the parish of the potential problems, Taffaro said, and the entire foundation was removed to reveal a missing piling and several pilings that didn’t meet the project specifications and “could compromise the integrity of the building.”
“We were able to catch it early (and) correct it,” Taffaro said. “Lord knows what would have happened if the building would have been constructed and then we would have gotten this information.”
Jan Buras, the owner of JaRoy Construction, did not return a call Wednesday afternoon seeking comment. An attorney for JaRoy, Sonny Shields, said the contractor “has done everything that the parish has requested it to do — complete compliance.”
Shields was unaware of exactly what criminal charges the attorney general’s office may be pursuing.
The Parish Council originally convened Wednesday to discuss “an immediate cease and desist order” for JaRoy Construction and to nullify an agreement signed by Taffaro and the contractor June 23 that dealt with removal of the slab and pilings.
A clause in that agreement said that the parish and JaRoy Construction “will begin with a clean slate upon the execution of this agreement.” The agreement was drafted by an attorney for JaRoy.
The council was originally going to discuss the matter in open session, but council members decided to move the discussions behind closed doors. The meeting went on for about an hour, and representatives of JaRoy at one point walked into the conference room where the council was deliberating.
In the end, the council chose to seek outside legal counsel to determine how to proceed, given the attorney general’s investigation. The council delayed a decision on whether to issue a stop-work order.
JaRoy is still the contractor, and the parish has a resident inspector on the site of both fire stations to ensure the work is done appropriately. The completion date for Fire Station #5 has been pushed back from the end of 2009 to January 2010.
“We need to proceed in such a way that we do nothing to delay the building of these fire stations,” Landry said. “I feel like we are responsible for the people’s money, and the people are all the taxpayers not just in the parish, but in the nation.”
Copyright 2009 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company