Bureaucratic Red Tape A few years ago we contracted with a developer and the City of Georgetown install a large wastewater line that paralleled the South San Gabriel River head west out of Georgetown, Tx. The project was extremely challenging. It was a 36 diameter pipe, that was at depths between 35 to 40 deep in solid rock and the whole length of approximately 7 miles. The first property we crossed was still owned by the Wolf Family, hence the naming of Wolf Ranch Shopping Complex at Hwy 29 at I-35. I knew one of the Wolf family members and made it through that area just fine. The next property owner was Dr. Guy. He was and elderly fellow, that was still on the staff at UT in the Mathematics Dept. (Ill attach his obit-he is somewhat legendary at UT due to his lengthy duration there). He may be the nicest person I had ever dealt with. When I needed addition land to temporarily stockpile dirt on, I met him out on his ranch and almost immediately struck up a deal with him. He was very accommodating. A few days later as we cleared timber on his land we encountered a grove of oak trees that showed to be removed. I had my men to stop clearing, instead having them move ahead. I once again ask Dr. Guy to meet me. He was no longer able to drive, even though he was still actively teaching at UT, at age 88, so he had a son being him out. He and I worked out and agreement where as we would save the 200-300 year old oaks, by me having use of some more of his property. It made the job more difficult, but to save the trees, it was worth it. The engineers and city folks just wasnt so sure about the arraignment the property owner and I had agreed on. It was only when I found in the contract between the upstream developer, whom we were contracted with, that any trees that could be saved he wouldnt have to pay the penalty for removing them. The penalty that was assessed on that grove of trees was around $150 thousand dollars. Money back in the developers pocket. That caused the developer to get behind me and Dr. Guy and the trees were saved. We continued on up the line another 4 miles and encountered another grouping of huge oaks that didnt show up on any tree surveys, so we not no even considered to be there. This was an area where the city owned the property. We stopped our clearing activity and got everyone involved out to the site. The city, the engineers and the developer. I suggested that we could tunnel underneath that area and save a grove very similar in size and age as the ones we had saved on Dr. Guys property. The cost would have been around $100,000. Knowing that the developer was still $50,000 to the good, I figured it was a slam dunk. I was wrong in that assumption. Contractually since the trees were not on a tree survey, they couldnt hold the developer responsible. The City didnt have the money to pay for saving their own trees. So they asked me if I would just donate the tunneling costs to save them. I actually considered it for a day or 2 and decided to decline the offer. I ask if each of us could split the cost 4 ways, The City, The Engineers, The Developer and The Contractor. I really think the other parties were peeved at me for not being more generous The day the trees came out, I took that day off. I couldnt stand to see them being removed. So if anyone ever thinks that contractors are out to rape and pillage the land, thats not always the case.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 17:46:50 +0000
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