Stephanie Myers-News Herald
Four men work on duty but off system at gas manager's
house
A Lenoir City Utilities Board crew was "doing a favor" for a
utilities department manager Tuesday morning to repair a broken
sewer pipeline at his home.
Two LCUB utility trucks and a four-member crew had been on site at
LCUB Gas Department Manager Mike Strange's Hines Valley Road house
for a couple hours, repairing the underground pipeline in the front
yard of the residence, Steve Shoemaker of LCUB said Tuesday at the
residence.
Shoemaker said the crew was just finishing up.
"We're just doing a favor here,
Shoemaker said when asked if tree removal work, which was being
performed by another company on the narrowing Hines Valley Road in
front of the home, was related to the crew's work in the front yard
of the residence.
"Yeah, a favor, so don't put that in the newspaper," he added with a
laugh. "Somebody don't have the sewer. The septic tanks were not
working and stuff, and we're just trying to help them out. It's not
a political part. They would hate that part unless it's one of the
council members or something else."
During a follow-up interview, Lenoir City Mayor and LCUB chairman
Tony Aikens said policy does not allow private work on residential
property.
"If they are out there doing private
work that is absolutely against policy, and it will be dealt with
accordingly," Aikens said. "I've talked to the general manager, and
he assures me that it will be taken care of appropriately and
swiftly, and he can give a statement from there."
LCUB General Manager Shannon Littleton said the work by the crew was
indeed off the utility's system.
"Some pretty serious discipline will be taken against some of our
employees," Littleton said. "Right now the investigation is ongoing,
and we don't have the full results yet. I haven't got all the
statements in, but I can assure you it will be dealt with quickly."
Littleton said Tuesday afternoon following a visit to the residence
that the septic system, which would not be serviced by a public
utility, had an issue where sewer was on top of the ground.
"I don't have full facts, like I
said. I think they actually took a shovel to investigate what was
going on,and they determined from early investigation - I only got
one statement so far - but they determined there was a break in the
septic line, and I think Mr. Strange was notified he was going to
have to get a plumber to repair his septic tank," Littleton said.
"From my understanding there have been maybe some minor patchwork
done to keep the flow of the sewer going, but there was not what I
would consider repair done to the system."
Shoemaker took a phone call during a recorded interview at the
residence but later confirmed the house belonged to Strange.
"That's the problem. The fact that it's an employee obviously raises
eyebrows. It does mine," Littleton said. "When it's an employee that
we are performing work for, but obviously if the if the employee
lived on our system obviously they are a customer of LCUB as well as
an employee. We are very careful how we handle those situations.
"This particular one I really don't have an answer for you because
it was off our system, and some people obviously made some poor
judgment calls on how to go about investigating whatever they did,
and that's part of the issue," Littleton added. "I don't have the
facts totally to know exactly what they performed or what they did,
but the major issue in my mind is the fact that we were off our
system."
Shoemaker told a News-Herald reporter that Strange had experienced
problems with the sewer system at the home, saying the residence was
about 30 years old.
"All the roots collapsed it. We
didn't do much good. We just replaced a small piece of pipe,"
Shoemaker said. He then took another phone call.
"Here's my problem. The only problem I have is that with us digging
out there and stuff is this considered emergency work? Because, I
mean, the state is going to hammer our hind end," Shoemaker said
during the call. "My thing is though is that if the state comes by
and there's a little problem out there and we're digging and that'
just emergency work then we're hammered. We're doing this for the
state?"
He paused to listen and began talking to the caller about another
work site. Shoemaker said the crew "would get in trouble" if they
replaced "the whole thing," but added that the crew could still get
in hot water. "If they knew we was out here we could get in trouble.
It's really the customer, and we really ain't supposed to be doing
stuff for customers," he said.
Shoemaker said LCUB works on main line work and that customer work
is the job of a plumber.
"Just to help," Shoemaker said as to why they came out to the
Strange residence. "We thought it might be a quick something that we
could help do, and we can't help. This house has been sitting empty
for sale I guess forever. They bought it, and I think one thing they
did when they bought it they just didn't get anything inspected, so
they inherited this. We don't mind helping people out at times, but
we get looked down on times when we do. We just came out here and
sort of donated some labor."
"I'm not going to answer any questions at this time," Strange said
later during a telephone interview at his LCUB office. "Let me ask
you a question. Were you taking photographs from my driveway? On
private property?"