Inverness awards more street work to Orange Crush

An Inverness resident traded jabs with the mayor and engineers hired to oversee the street resurfacing program at a recent meeting of the village board.

A major complaint of Bill Heiderman, who said he has been in the paving industry 42 years, was that work was done after rainfall that is only supposed to be done when the roads are dry.

At the Aug. 11 meeting, Heiderman and Mayor Jack Tatooles disagreed about whether rain had fallen in Inverness or not on certain dates.

Three representatives from Gewalt Hamilton Associates in Vernon Hills, engineers hired to oversee the road projects, denied that guidelines for laying roads had been violated.

The village has issued more than $9 million in bonds to resurface and otherwise fix roads in the community over a period of two to three years, and has awarded the first two contracts totaling $3.9 million to Orange Crush of Hillside.

Heiderman was charged with criminal damage to property for chipping asphalt off a road, said Curt Carver, village administrator. Heiderman said he did this to test the quality of the paving.

Tatooles, who was very polite to the resident, said Heiderman had not been allowed to speak at a previous board meeting because the engineers were not present to answer his questions.

Heiderman said samples should be taken every 1,000 feet to prove the paving is correct, and he asked the board to order this done.

The engineers said there are other ways to investigate the quality of asphalt roads.

In a written report to village officials, Steven D. Berecz, senior engineer for GHA, said Orange Crush, the road contractor, has performed in "general conformance" with specifications.

Berecz said at the meeting that references for Orange Crush had checked out with four local governments: Des Plaines, Bolingbrook, Romeoville and Pingree Grove.

Carver said the company's references were checked carefully because of the "colorful history of Orange Crush," apparently referring to 1999 federal fraud convictions for officials of predecessor companies, including Palumbo Brothers Inc.

Berecz said Bill Klewin, another engineer from GHA, has been in Inverness full time and filed field reports daily and weekly.

Heiderman said he had pictures of water on the road. The engineers said it was not true that they allowed paving on wet surfaces. They said what appeared to be surface water could be moisture from the heat of the asphalt or the heat of the day drawing water to the surface of the asphalt.

Bruce Shrake, president of GHA, suggested the water could be caused by capillary action.

The material eventually seals itself, he said.

The village board approved the second contract, for $1.6 million, after the discussion.