While the mayor was touting building a $25 million dollar building downtown today (that we don’t need) over on Phillips Avenue they were trying to prop up PAVE. Of course the OSHA findings could take months and there could be a lot of closed door settlements with insurance companies.
But this question was posed to me today; is Hultgren Construction still around? I guess I am not sure, but the word coming back to me is that many of the projects they were working on around town have halted. Is it a precautionary measure to freeze their assets or to liquidate them?
Funny how when this all happened every TV station in town sprouted an investigative reporter as if a college professor was getting arrested for sexual assault. Now we hear NO followup with the building collapse. Maybe they found another mysterious white truck driving through Platte, SD in the middle of the night?
Nothing! Is the answer to your question. Absent OSHA, a federal agency, we live in the world of “local control” and “states’ rights.,” which means our system is void of a true remedy for this tragedy unless a grand jury is impaneled into this matter. And hopefully that reality will be soon.
What makes one so embolden to take down a low bearing wall without permits or proper supports, after having been scolded for your work at the PAVE, unless you have a comfort in ways because “powers that be,” that you know, are on your side behind the scenes whenever possible.
That is why we need a grand jury to get to the bottom of this “Good Old Boy” tragedy which killed one and injured another.
As far as the media is concerned, well, they are most likely to busy hanging around at the Clerk of Courts office waiting for another arrest warrant to come down on another Democratic politician most likely. Or, maybe their “source” has become to shy.
City ordinance excepts the city from prosecution. They make rules they can’t enforce and you can’t sue them. Everything about this matter will be private. OJ won in state court but lost in private court. He took bankruptcy and hid his assets. That’s what will happen here. The construction company will be sold to a new company for a dollar. The new company will be across the street with the same management.
What’s especially wrong is the city doesn’t protect or serve citizens and the contractor goes unpunished.
Except, that there is a “thing” called willful criminal negligence, which no law can excuse. We can debate how far the linkage will stretch, but only a grand jury can identify it and expose those who are responsible through indictment….. The system needs to be allowed to work and prove its vitality, and it is up to members of our criminal justice system to make this happen….
You know Angela, you could have just shot me an email;
http://www.keloland.com/news/article/investigates/building-collapse-investigation-results-won-t-be-released-for-months