It was the summer of 1985 when I was working at the Investment Building as a maintenance man for a management company run by a JP when I was asked to go to work for the building managers brother in laws construction company who was awarded the $4 million dollar contract to rebuild the run down Stafford Village Apartments into the new upscale apartments under a new name a 16 building apartment complex in Monroeville Pa.
I was hired as the electrical foreman and had a crew of 6 working under me which included my younger brother who helped during the summer with his friend to make college money. It was great having my brother John and Spike that summer but we lost them in the fall to school as the project went on.
So me Ken , Danny and Tom did the bulk of the work after that.
We where involved in several different projects on site first was installing all new light fixtures and receptacles etc in all apartments and halls and outside the buildings we also did some repair and upgrades to electrical services and hooked up new appliances.
We also upgraded all the fire systems from old AC only powered type to modern battery backed up systems and we installed a 2 entry intercom system and boxes at each building .
It took almost 2 years to finish the project which I left in disgust after re injuring my back when I got knocked off a ladder after getting shocked off a light fixture which was supposed to be off but was not after foreman of project told me he turned it off.
The project started off smooth enough but soon started into a nightmare where I would find my customer who recommended me for the project and her partners ripped off by JP which no one wanted to believe he was capable of doing it but that's why they call them confidence men
JP was at it again in late 90' I was working for a realty company who also managed property owned by a Dr. Friend I warned the realty company about JP. and they got ripped off and Dr. Friend as well who became extremely upset realty company never passed on what I had told them. JP would eventually find him self in criminal trouble with authorities in Florida involving Mortgage scams and br charged with crimes .
Before the project started JP bought himself a brand new Rolls Royce and new in-ground swimming pool and Dan Aston Monroeville fire Official had to sign off The buildings had no major hazards which was not true .and Dan got a brand new SS Chevy he was riding around in. which everyone questioned what was going on. Dan lost the car in an explosion when he pissed off some builders dont know if anyone was ever charged
Well the construction company owned by JP wife's Brother took over an apartment for the construction office and we started on the lower buildings as tenants moved out and where forced to put working light bulbs in every light fixture as a way to humiliate and degrade them one of many ways they used as many where tenants where section 8 I was told and they no longer wanted in the complex and they left. As tenants left we went in replaced all the light fixtures and outlets replaced hall way lights etc. and new kitchens where installed and at a very large expense as they where not measured correctly and took a lot of work to correct. which eat up a lot of the budget I was able to save by an idea I came up to save money on the fire alarms .
First I figured out how to reuse all the fire alarm wiring which was a big savings and we saved a fortune not having to put in a master outside annunciation panel for the fire alarms in the complex which would have meant trenching from every building to it. Instead working with the fire Official Dan Aston I was able to convince him to allow ADT to install a McCullough loop in the complex tieing in the buildings together via existing phone lines . However ADT was an EPIC Fail when it came time to do the work and it took them nearly 2 years to get it working then they made a mistake which blew all the fire panels up after job was finished. ADT also got into trouble with Bell Telephone for tapping into phone lines they where not authorized to use. I walked into Dan Astons the Fire Marshals office to have him yelling at me about it when I told him I had nothing to do with it and it was done with out my knowledge and well after I had any further dealings with the place .
But all in all the fire side went well.Except Dan wanted us to run the MC cable we ran thru fire walls in a half inch EMT pipe sleeve .But he said not to use fire caulking after we switched all the penetrations in effect this would allow heat from a fire to quickly go from one room to another.
This is just one of many badly thought out decisions by Dan Aston which eventually cost him his Job
He was a brilliant Fire Scientist but when it came to practical application in the field he was out of his element .
The top 4 buildings in the complex where all electric. They had these Carrier Electric Forced air
heaters which would keep overheating. I told Dan they needed a Sail Switch to not allow elements on unless fan was sensed running and they needed the Overheat element rewired properly thru a relay to break contacts on the elements. He ignored me and Jim Bean the heating contractors suggestions and instead insisted they be contained around with dry wall which was against manufacturers instructions and one night there was a horrific fire in one of the buildings and Dan was found at fault after the investigators found letters from me and Jim warning not to do the drywall enclosures as well .
The electrical part of the job ended up a night mare .
They wanted light fixtures installed in the halls which where thin and narrow and where never designed to be installed in ceiling tiles so we had to build braces to hold them in place. But they decided against rivets and just left the lights to be held in place by the loose ceiling grid strips a bad move . Then they where suppose to replace every outlet and switch including new plate covers. which they did at first till one day I walked into M.O.'s the foreman's apartment and found him washing old switch plate covers he wanted us to use instead because the project was running out of money.
The Electrical Engineer on the plans wanted us to put bigger than was required breakers on the back up generators and got overruled by the Electrical Inspector
Just one of many conflicts we had with the engineer who the Electrical Inspector got into many disputes with.
I was glad to get out of their and ken stayed on and lived at the complex and continued to clean up problems as he found them till it was sold to an investment group and after I clued in JP and his crooked dealings had ripped off all his investors in the project they where furious.
Many who worked on the project have passed on including JP. the last time I saw him was at Home depot in Monroeville apparently after his divorce I had heard and he was looking for a part for a sink. I said to him I see your con game finally caught up to you and he just laughed.
what a POS he screwed 2 of my good customers who invested with him/.
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