Peek-A-Boo
Here we go again, when the city or other governmental agencies screw up, and they don’t want to take responsibility, they blame God;
“Then I was told it was an act of God. They looked at it, assumed it was settlement, it was an act of God. Â I was stunned,” Leacraft said.
I wonder what our self-proclaimed best Christian in Sioux Falls, Mayor Huether thinks of this? Maybe we could just paint over the cracks with “Finding Jesus”, that will teach that God guy and his Old Testament ways! I wonder if God also instructed the contractors to not use re-bar in the foundation?
“When we cut the 2 x 4s out, you could take a screw driver and go from the top all the way to the bottom. There was no rebar at all; none,†Leacraft said.
Rebar are metal bars that reinforce concrete to prevent structural failure. While the first report indicated the presence of rebar at the top, bottom and side of the window, a second structural engineer’s report confirms that “the top of the window does not have rebar extending beyond the opening.”
Like our Mayor, God seems to be quite the micro-manager. Besides God fiddling with dirt settlement, and the contractor not using something that about 99.9% of other concrete contractors use in foundations, it seems the city inspectors, once again are asleep on the job;
JJ Concrete’s attorney points out that all of his work passed City inspection.  I asked the City building inspector to try to find out why the problems with the footings weren’t caught on Leacraft’s home in the code inspection before the house was placed on the foundation. Ron Bell, the Chief Building Services Official, told me he couldn’t talk about it because SECOG, insurance companies and attorneys are now involved, but that the city is keeping the line of communication open between all parties.
Besides the fact that Mr. Bell is retiring very soon, his same department is the one that gave the ‘all clear’ on the Events Center siding. No biggee, we got a $1 million dollar settlement on that so we can buy popcorn poppers and beer coolers. I wonder if they are keeping the settlement a secret so not to shame God’s handywork in that debacle also?
Not being an attorney or a building inspector, it looks as though this is a case of poor workmanship, and hopefully the courts and attorneys can work it out, but what are the repercussions for the city for a poor inspection? Another secret settlement? We wouldn’t want to offend God anymore then we already have, there are still a lot of Downtown restaurants he could flood.