All of those comforts went out the window at the latest meeting. Van Buren Point residents are fed up with the Portland Town Board, and they let the Board have it for more than 25 minutes.

More than a dozen residents were in attendance at a recent meeting as several speakers criticized the Town Board for its handling of the Water District 2 project.

David Leathers, a member of the Van Buren Point community, spoke, as he said, to highlight his disappointment with the Town’s leadership. Leathers said that members of the community have been highlighting concerns with the project for more than a year, and claimed, “The Town has not been active or responsive, and has given the impression that they do not view these concerns as legitimate or credible.”

S. St. George Enterprises handled the construction of the project, which was overseen by CPL: Architecture-Engineering-Planning, formerly referred to as Clark-Patterson-Lee. The project – pertaining to Van Buren Point and the Greencrest community near Patterson Lane – included the replacement of water lines that were originally installed in the 1970s, along with installing new water meters and meter pits.

OBSERVER Photos by Braden Carmen Portland Town Supervisor Rich Lewis listened to more than 25 minutes of public comments at a recent meeting from residents upset with the handling of the Water District 2 project.

Leathers alluded to “hard evidence that corners were cut” in the process, including improper fill materials, incorrect compaction, and substandard fittings used on the sewer system.

He, along with several other residents, shared public health and safety concerns with the way the project was constructed. Residents claimed they felt at risk because of failing components of the sewage system, putting them at risk for contamination. Leathers requested the Town seek “immediate action” to resolve the risks to residents of the district.

The district, located near the shoreline along Route 5, is among the larger water districts in the Town of Portland. Water District 2 comprises 558 parcels of land assessed at a total of nearly $25 million. The project was planned prior to the pandemic shutdown, but was paused and went out for bid at a later date. When the project went out to bid again, the price more than doubled from its initial cost. The total cost surpassed $4.6 million.

There has been an offer to extend the Town’s warranty on the project, but Van Buren Point residents claim that offer is not good enough to address their concerns. “The contractor and the engineer were challenged on their poor workmanship. They immediately offered a five-year warranty extension. Maybe you could ask yourself why,” Leathers said.

Supervisor Rich Lewis later told the OBSERVER that the areas in question have been tested by the county and were deemed to pose no threat to public health and safety.

Portland Town Board member Tammy Thompson fired back at criticism from residents at a recent meeting.

Leathers criticized Lewis for how he represented discussions between the Van Buren Point community and the Town. Residents attended the Town Board meeting in July to initially raise their concerns in the public comment forum. Lewis said at that time that a meeting could be scheduled with representatives from Van Buren Point, the Town Board, S. St. George Enterprises and CPL, but the meeting did not take place.

One resident called the positions of S. St. George Enterprises and CPL “indefensible” and criticized the Town Board for choosing “to side with a multimillion dollar contractor and a multimillion dollar engineering firm over the Van Buren Point community, over the Town of Portland, and over every federal taxpayer in the entire country.”

Another resident said, “We’re very disappointed, and that’s saying it mildly.”

Lewis stated that if the warranty extension was unacceptable and there was no counter offer provided by the residents of the district that take issue with the project, he did not see the point in having the meeting between all parties. “The contractor and the engineer are probably not going to want to sit down if it’s going to proceed further than this,” Lewis said.

After another resident criticized the entire Board for not taking action on the matter, Town Board member Tammy Thompson fired back by saying, “You don’t know the discussions that have happened; you don’t know the things that we’ve talked about; you don’t know the trips that have been taken down there; and you don’t know the things that have been documented; so I’d be very careful. Do not lay that out and say that we just ignored it. … If there was something actionable on our part, there would have been something that would’ve been done.”

Thompson later reiterated the only reason she spoke up after 15 minutes of public comments already took place is because she did not appreciate how things became personal.

“I did not speak for all of the residents. I did not speak to how they feel, what they did, or their character. I’d be very careful. That is what I’m cautioning you on,” Thompson said.

Thompson also expressed frustration with the stance of the residents that they are upset and claiming the offer is not good enough, but not stating what would be an acceptable outcome.

“If you guys aren’t going to sit down and say, ‘What can we come back with, or here’s another idea, or why don’t we counter with this’, and you’re not going to do that, you’re just going to say it’s unacceptable, then they’ll just wait it out,” Thompson said. “Either you guys have to pursue on your own legal matter, and be able to come to the table at that point, or you come back with something that is tangible that they can consider.”

Residents pushed back against Thompson’s comments, stating that emails documenting the specific issues of the residents were sent to the Town Board throughout the past year.

One resident said, “Why don’t you do the work yourself?” Another resident said, “We did our legwork.”

Summing up the public comments, one resident said, “What we’re asking and what we want is the contract to be met. That’s what we want.”

While the project pertained to both Van Buren Point and Greencrest communities, nearly all of the public uproar for the past year that the town has faced has been from Van Buren Point.

After more than 25 minutes of comments from the public and responses from the Board, Lewis closed the public comment portion of the meeting. The majority of the crowd then exited as the meeting proceeded.