Date: Fri 14-Aug-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

contruction-Krasnickas-lawsuit

Full Text:

Disputes Over Construction Projects Linger On

BY STEVE BIGHAM

Last month, Frank Krasnickas heard a knock at the front door of his Main

Street home. He opened the door to find Keith Crumb standing there.

Mr Crumb is the part-owner of Building Technologies, Inc of Prospect, the

company that was hired to complete the Cyrenius Booth Library then later fired

due to a lack of progress.

"Well, I invited him inside because it was too hot out," recalled Mr

Krasnickas, the town's Public Building & Site Committee chairman.

Mr Crumb had been threatening to file a lawsuit for work he did which he

claims went unpaid. He also talked about suing for alleged defamation.

However, he came to Mr Krasnickas' home in an effort to settle the matter "out

of court." Mr Crumb also met with First Selectman Herb Rosenthal.

"He was looking for the world," said Mr Krasnickas, indicating Mr Crumb's

request was somewhere around $300,000.

Of course, the town refused such terms, pointing out that Mr Crumb is the one

who owes money -- to his sub-contractors. Mr Crumb reportedly posted a

performance bond when he began the project and the bonding company has been

writing checks to sub-contractors.

As building committee member Pete Samoskevich explained, Mr Crumb has

expressed a number of reasons why the job was not done on time. For example,

he blames the town for the delays brought on by the discovery of asbestos in

the old building.

"That was only in one section. He could have been working in the new section

while the asbestos was being removed," Mr Samoskevich said.

A few days after the town of Newtown declined to "settle", the town received a

letter from BTI's attorney, Ed Marcus of New Haven, saying a lawsuit seeking

nearly twice the original request was in the works. Mr Crumb has hinted that

he has also considered suing the town for wrongful termination of contract and

inflammatory remarks made by town officials against his company.

Town officials have suggested that part of the problem was that Keith Crumb's

father died just two weeks after BTI began work on the library. The elder Mr

Crumb had been running the company. His son took over the library after his

father's death.

For Frank Krasnickas, the pending lawsuit is just another hitch in the road.

His work never seems to end. Now, two members of his committee are being sued

by Kennedy Electric for comments they made regarding the company's work on the

high school project. Tony DeCarlo and John Lipusz, both trade union members,

showed "animosity" toward Kennedy Electric, a non-union contractor, according

to the lawsuit.

Both Kennedy and Darien Asphalt dropped suits they had previously filed

against the town after town officials voted to pay the companies the money

they were owed for work at the high school.

On top of the lawsuits, Mr Krasnickas still has to deal with the headache of

trying to finish the three major town projects -- the library, the high school

and Hawley School. Although all of these facilities are open and in use, not

one is completely finished. Dozens of punch-list items still need to be done.

Mr Krasnickas said it is difficult to get contractors on sight to do small

jobs when they're already working on much larger projects elsewhere.

"In the meantime, we're hurting," he said. "Anytime you extend a project it

becomes very costly."

Mr Krasnickas had plans to step down last December, months ago. He agreed to

stay on temporarily until the jobs were completed.

"My term was up in December, but I agreed to stay on until the projects were

finished. Who knew it would last this long? When is it going to end?" he

wondered aloud.

Dealing with angered contractors as well as various lawyers has become part of

Mr Krasnickas's life. Newtown's attorneys have also been doing their share of

talking with lawyers. So much so that Mr Krasnickas decided to tally up the

bills from the Cohen & Wolf Law firm -- he came up with $30,000 in bills just

over the Kennedy Electric Darien Asphalt suits alone.

"It adds up quickly," he said.