Permit mess may alter borough process

MEADOW LAKES — A permitting tangle on a Mat-Su Borough road project could change the way the borough works with its contractors.

“Up until now it’s always been up to the general contractor, but now I think we’re going to modify that a bit to make sure there’s a review to make sure that the gravel pits being used are permitted,” said Alex Strawn, Mat-Su Borough Development Services Manager.

The problem stems from a gravel pit on Pittman Road, B&E Sand and Gravel.

“We were under the understanding that we had a current permit and it’s come to my attention that we did not,” part-owner Steve Bargabos said at a borough assembly meeting June 17.

The Bargabos’ pit had been supplying gravel to the project to extend Machen Road, turning the road into a frontage for the Parks Highway. The borough has $6 million to expand into frontage roads Machen Road and, on the other side of the Parks, Museum Drive. Officials say the $6 million won’t be enough to do both but funds left over when Machen is finished can possibly pay for design and possibly the necessary land for the Museum Drive project. The $2.9 million contract to construct Machen was awarded to Scarsella Brothers Inc.

“It sounded like an honest mistake,” said Assistant Borough Manager George Hayes at that same meeting. “I would like to ask for a three-week waiver of this.”

Strawn said that the permit issue came up during a borough inspection of the property. The property also is subject to a junk and trash ordinance violation.

“We had already issued an enforcement order and were just checking on the compliance,” Strawn said.

He said that the junk and trash complaint was first filed in 2011.

“Somehow enforcement of that fell through the cracks,” he said. “It wasn’t until recently that we renewed our efforts in enforcing that.”

While enforcing that order, the borough code compliance officer noticed a bunch of gravel trucks moving out and found that the permit had expired. Strawn said it had first been issued in 2007 and was a two-year permit. A one-year extension was granted but it expired again in 2010.

As for when a new permit could be issued, Strawn told the assembly last week that his department could get it done in 17 days.

“Seventeen days would be sort of a record for us, it would take one staff person dropping everything else and focusing on this one thing,” he said at the meeting.

In an interview Monday he said that 17 days means 15 days to give neighbors notice of the permit and one day on either side. It will cause some delay in the borough’s permitting process.

Other pending permits will still get done, he said, “they won’t be quite as fast as they would be otherwise.”

Bargabos in his remarks said that the permit snafu idled 50 people.

Assemblyman Darcie Salmon called the stoppage of work at the pit “unfair” and said it came “at a moment’s notice.”

“Time is money and that’s what I don’t want, delay, I don’t want lolly-gagging, I don’t want side-stepping, I don’t want pushing it down the road to someone else,” Salmon said. “This needs to be done as expeditiously as possible.”

As for what this has meant for Machen Road, the borough’s Capital Projects Director Mike Brown said that so far the contractor for the project, Scarsella Brothers Inc., was proceeding as planned, aiming at an Oct. 31 completion date.

He said he hadn’t talked to Scarsella but it would be “premature” at this point to start talking about a delay.

“We haven’t made any moves to change that and we’ll see how it plays,” he said.

He said work can continue without a gravel source, to a point. Where that point is and when they will reach it he couldn’t say, but contract schedules have padding in them.

“Obviously there’s a lot of discussion, coordination, direction that’s provided over the course of the project but they’ve got some flexibility in their schedule,” Brown said. “I’m still optimistic though.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.