The Difference Between Night and Day

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Preface

The following narrative is uncannily similar. It involves a much larger out of State Business Entity and a much weaker and older adjoining landowner. However, it is far shorter and less technocratic. The Difference Between Night and Day.

What Is Going To Happen To Me?

My father already hoped I had a way to stop it. As, I provided him the same scenario as I had a few other prominent individuals; "Your road is going to get blown out and McDonald's is going to lose their parking lot. He looked down at the floor resigned to the inevitable. All of which occurs, shortly thereafter.

Massive amounts of storm drainage and earthen fill came down off of 109 & 113 Platinum Drive and entered McDonald's and Pizza Hut's storm drainage system, which stops it up. The drainage, having no where else to go, then runs over said businesses parking lot area and over their large lateral slope. My father is beyond concerned: "That damn water is going to cause a slip". It does and so begins the drama that included my father's road collapse, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut's collapsed parking lot areas and major drainage issues. All of which, leads to ice covered access and parking lot areas.

My father would then give me his 1939 WV State Engineering Plans of the construction of what he terms, "New US 50". He had me make copies and then directed me to provide one to a Thrasher Engineer who was surveying McDonalds damaged parking lot area. An Engineer, who then states he had never seen said Engineering Plans before. I asked about McDonald's slip. What slip? The Engineer wasn't aware of any slip.

US Route 50

My father would contact the Department of Highways (WVDOH) about the drain under US 50. The WVDOH brought in an excavator, where's my father takes a young state supervisor down to the valley floor and points out the exact location of U.S Route 50's drain outlet's opening.

The excavator operator starts on the valley floor then quickly changes course and drives the large metal track excavator up my father's blacktop driveway. The operator then starts at the top of the McDonald's slope and works his way down. The excavator hits drainage coming out of the slope above the area of U.S Route 50's drain outlet. My father notes drainage is trying to find a way out. Why didn't the WVDOH heed his initial directions, as the operator pushed more fill down the slope in the area of the drainage line's outlet on the valley floor! They even had his 1939 U.S Route 50 Engineering Plans which showed the drainage line's location!

Meeting:

A meeting was eventually held at the McDonalds Restaurant where I was asked about the composition of the fill that McDonalds and Pizza Hut sat on. I informed them of my father's missives to have the drainage line under U.S Route opened up before "U.S. Route 50 Collapsed". The same Young State Road Supervisor and a head nodding Thrasher Engineer stated that the drain was about 20 feet down from the surface area of Route 50. I informed the parties that I had played in the drain's outlet as a child. It was located further down on the valley floor. I asked if they could take a horizontal auger and go back into the drain outlet to and unplug it. They had considered it.

After 10 minutes or so, a McDonalds corporate representative said; I do not think you understand. "They", (The Young State Road Supervisor and the head nodding Thrasher Engineer), are your father is responsible. They knew better. What was going on?

Five Years:

I had amassed an unheard of level of documentation concerning the antics imparted on a wide geographical area. However, to listen to said parties attempt to place blame on my elderly father in the same way that Platinum Properties had attempted to place blame on us for 109 & 113 Platinum Drive was staggering.

I thought how McDonalds, Pizza Hut's and U.S Route 50's drainage induced collapses would not have occurred if Platinum Properties had followed their own Jackson and Kelly 2005 Agreement. As I sat stunned and considered the DEP agent's earlier words, This Happens To Older People. The young State Supervisor pats me on the shoulder and says; "Good Luck Buddy".

Once everyone exits the meeting the McDonalds corporate executive and I take a short ride around the area. I inform him that my father could not understand why McDonalds would repair their drainage system without addressing their slip first. A slip area that also supported their utilities. The executive asked; What Slip? No one had told him of any slip. I showed him. He rubbed his head.

I called my father. He gave McDonald's Attorneys a history of the area from the 1940's to the 1980's. He then asked why I wanted to know. I told him. he then stated; I gave them, (Thrasher Engineering), my prints of New US Route 50's construction. Can't They Read? Frank Lacaria was never mentioned again. Actually, all credibility switched from the government to my father.

Friendly Calls

Months pass, and I was out of the loop. McDonald's and Pizza Hut's plans to start their corrective repairs was generally known. At the last minute, I am told that the City of Bridgeport's Attorneys threw a monkey wrench in at the very last minute. I would then receive a call from McDonald's Corporate Headquarters. Their representative and I spoke for a while and then the gentleman asked: Do you know the cost McDonalds is entailing for these repairs? I said yes, and it’s not near the price I have paid over the years. He acknowledged the fact. He mentioned Platinum Properties and their role/s in McDonald's property problems; He held them totally responsible.

A few days later papers were signed. McDonalds and Pizza Hut replaced their drainage systems. The slope area was then fixed and in the process the old man's road was replaced. McDonalds incorporated a support wall that consisted of Metal "I" Beam Pilings and locked-in concrete blocks, which created a permanent engineered support wall.

Once the support wall was constructed, the West Virginia Department of Highways, (WVDOH) returned to address the drainage under US Route 50. My father took the DOH back down to the valley floor and pointed out the exact location of U.S Route 50's drain outlet. This time, the DOH quickly found the drainage line's outlet near immediately where it came out under the McDonald's slope. The DOH then began preparing the area for the equipment that would be needed in their attempt at a horizontal cleaning of the drainage line under US 50.

The Process:

My father had repeatedly instructed WVDOH Workers to stay away from the earthen slope that the Quick Lube sat on. He went into his home and the State workers did exactly what he told them not to do. They took out the complete toe area of the support slope which the Quick Lube business. Why would they do it? The drainage line's outlet and its drainage path was in the middle of the valley floor. He could not see the sense of it, nor could anyone who would view the video of it all.

The WVDOH workers cleaned the drainage line out and found the drains collapsed point far back into the McDonald's slope area toward Route 50, in the WVDOH's Right of Way. The DOH then took all their equipment and left.

My father then went to their headquarters and brought them back to fix the bottom of the Quik Lube area Slope, which they had cut out. The WVDOH then placed a heavy rock support blanket at the base of the slope locking it in to the floor base.

Note: The condition that the DOH left the area in would have resulted in a lateral support collapse of U.S Route 50. This would not have been good. As, during the same time periods, U.S Route 50 East had collapsed. As did Route 131.

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