The Big Dig Is On! (And The Fibs Continue)

Our $125,000 DPW Superintendent is a strange bird, isn't he?

One week ago, eleven days after Harry Howard Avenue at the flats along Underwood Pond was closed to all traffic because of sudden major road failure there, Rob Perry made an announcement on the city's website about the situation.  Perry had had over one week to assess the very serious situation. (While Perry's name was not included on the "Harry Howard Avenue Closure Update," it certainly couldn't have come from anyone but him.) 

For brevity's sake, here is a slightly edited version of the update from exactly one week ago:  "The city, along with outside engineers, has identified the cause of the large crack in the road on Harry Howard near Underhill and the issue has been remedied.  Excavation will begin next week once utility location is complete, after which DPW will do subterranean work and lay the road's subbase."

I'm not going to dive into the very confusing, absurd nature of that update, though it does merit criticism (and a laugh). 

But this does need to be said.  While Mr. Perry was writing this update a week ago, he had probably already been on the phone at least once with Paul Colarusso, the owner of Colarusso & Sons in Greenport.  Because, actually, beginning yesterday, that is who has been taking care of the "subterranean work" to remove and replace our failed street.  DPW workers are not digging up that street down to the subbase and replacing it, nor will any of them be doing any such work.  Colarusso will be handling all of it.  Contrary to what he announced just 7 days ago, Rob Perry decided to hire Colarusso & Sons to replace 300 feet of a crucial city street, and only Colarusso will be doing the work for at least the next few weeks.  When do you suppose Rob Perry first got Paul Colarusso on the phone and asked him, "Hey, Paul, do you have men available sometime soon to remove 300 feet of Harry Howard down to the subbase and put it all back together within a few weeks for me?"  Did that phone call take place this past Monday, two days before Colarusso began excavation with their machinery and men?  Or did it take place early last week, a few days before Mr. Perry told the city that his department, not a local private road construction company, would be replacing 300 feet of Harry Howard to its foundation?

Not a DPW worker in sight.  Not even Mr. Perry!

Our DPW Superintendent had to have known full well -- well over a week ago -- that his laborers were no match for this long and deep mess on Harry Howard.  He had to have known that he didn't even have the machinery necessary to replace the entire street.  He must have known, or at the very least he should have known, that there was no way that anyone other than a professional paving and road construction company could handle this huge challenging project.  At the first glance of those enormous cracks on the pavement of Harry Howard over two weeks ago, Rob Perry must have known he would have no choice but to hire a professional contractor to completely replace the badly damaged street with serious structural issues.  But, apparently, according to his "update" eleven days after he first saw those cracks, he didn't see things that way.  It was a job for DPW!  A huge job for several DPW laborers with nothing better to do and no experience replacing a street to its subbase.

So, was our DPW Superintendent just misspeaking or confused when he claimed that DPW would be fixing the problem along 300 feet of Harry Howard Avenue, including excavating the street down 6 or 8 feet to the subbase and replacing everything, a job they've never taken on and never should?  Did he really think for one second that he had the machinery, capabilities, manpower, experience and know how to do this?  Or did he just lie to us again?  Did Rob Perry not announce that an outside contractor would be handling the big problem on Harry Howard because it would have been a tacit admission that one leaky pipe had caused a calamity that was going to cost our cash-strapped city many hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, that would go straight to a private contractor?  Did he misspeak or did he lie?  Was he delusional or joking?  His so-called update a week ago was not accurate at all.

Lots of dump truck traffic spewing toxic exhaust and 
damaging our streets.  Not DPW dump trucks, though!

The one sign (of many) of a pathological liar that I find most fascinating is one that I have noticed displayed by our DPW Superintendent on several occasions.  Pathological liars lie when there is no need for them to do so.  They simply cannot help themselves.  It is in their nature -- their DNA -- to lie, just as they cannot stop breathing for more than a minute.  They are essentially addicted to lying.  They get off on it.  All the time, regardless of a lie's usefulness to themselves.  

People who know Rob Perry well may say he is an honest and sincere person.  I am not one of those people.

Note:  Tuesday's HUDseen article featuring DPW on Harry Howard showed pictures of an excavation just outside and up the hill from the area of the failed portion of the street.  My guess is that a leaking pipe there was responsible for this entire mess, and that is what DPW had "remedied" in that excavation.  Then Colarusso took over excavation, beginning about 50 feet away where the street was a cracked mess.