Concrete firm accused of doctoring paperwork
By Kathryn Reed
A local concrete company is being accused of falsifying paperwork involving work done for the city of South Lake Tahoe.
Each year a professional engineer certifies the mix of concrete. While the ingredients, so to speak, don’t change, there is a concoction created for each year.
City officials contend Sierra Tahoe Ready Mix used the 2011 batch in 2013. In providing the “old” supply the company also allegedly falsified documents to say this was the current mix.
Ray Jarvis, head of the city’s public works department, told Lake Tahoe News, “At this point we don’t think there is a structural issue.”
He says this because at the site samples are taken to test the strength of the concrete.
The “old” concrete was used in at least the Bijou erosion control project. The city is looking at other projects that might be affected.
No one from Sierra Tahoe Ready Mix returned calls.
Officers with the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office and El Dorado District Attorneys Office searched the business this week and came away with undisclosed items. The DA’s office is leading the fraud investigation.
The Chateau project and all of the recent work done in Lake Tahoe Unified School District exclusively used Sierra Tahoe Ready Mix for concrete.
“What really matters to us in the end is if the concrete meets the specifications and comes up to the strength. It has done that 100 percent of the time. There is no question about the Chateau project,” Joe Stewart with SMC Contracting told Lake Tahoe News. SMC is building the retail out at the Chateau and is also the firm that put in the original foundation at the site.
Stewart added, “There is a significant amount of independent testing when we pour concrete.”
Thousands of yards of concrete from Sierra Tahoe Ready Mix have also been used throughout LTUSD.
“For every 50 yards of concrete delivered to one of our projects we take a series of test cylinders for the concrete. This is done by an independent engineering firm,” Steve Morales, LTUSD director of facilities, told Lake Tahoe News. “We never had any concrete that did not meet the ultimate specifications.”
Sure hope that the city has all of its ducks in a row. If they are on a wild goose chase here and it turns out to be nothing I can see them being sued big time. I wonder if the city had brought this to the local businesses attention or just went straight to a swat team take down. Would be interesting to hear both sides of the story of whats going on here.
Not exactly a lot of information here, but it sounds like the county DA’s office is fully involved which either means that they’ve taken over directing the case, or they originated it in the first place. I wouldn’t worry much about the city and its ducks. Interesting case, nevertheless.
I will be very interested when the other shoe drops here.
Is this simply a paper snafu gone awry?
Several questions are obvious but not covered in the arrticle:
Clearly you don’t keep concrete from 2011 until 2013.
What is really the difference in the “concoction” referenced between 2011 and 2013?
Why is 2012 not mentioned?
A lot of concrete got poured that year.
Concrete is tested when installed, a completely different activity from the mixing and delivery.
The statement was made that officials don’t see a structural issue and all tests were good. This means there is not a public safety problem.
If that is true, what IS the problem??? This has not been answered, and should be done quickly.
Given the Swat Team approach, so typical of our police these days, my guess is they kicked the doors in too, just because they can.
Further to the reason for such drastic tactics, there must be a money issue here, and the city/county etal are looking at some large financial windfall to help resolve problems with their poorly managed budgets.
The county District Attorney’s office does indeed seem to be hair triggered. The Angela Swanson debacle (and others) seems to provide sufficient evidence that they often go off half cocked.
Come on, lay it out for the people in plain language.
speaking of money I wonder what the sales tax loss would be to the city if they shut down the concrete company.
speaking of money issues how much impact would it have to have the city shut down this business what would the sales tax loss be. Sure seems like this could have been dealt with differently if it is just a paper work issue. Sounds like they are not selling a bad product. would be interesting for a statement from the business, but their legal council has probably told them what to do.
Lets shut them down over some BS issue. We need cement trucks clogging up one lane of Spooner Summit while Kingsbury grade is closed.
Wow, there sure are alot of clairvoyant speculators out there who seem to know all the facts and are already ASSumeing the causes and affects of this story. Hope none of you have to suck on your feet.
@gofigure-huh???
You know the saying, foot in mouth, when someone speaks about the facts before they are even shared, and they are usually wrong. Guess I was being too artsy fartsy. My point was that the twists and turns of this story were being created by the blog contributors without the facts. Fingers were being pointed, and you know the outcome of that kind of situation.
The Tahoe tribune has an article with the owner of this company. That is where some of my comment thoughts came from . Maybe LTN could interview him and do a follow up. Seems to be very aggressive law enforcement tactics for what kind of issues were had from his side of the story.
Wake me up when our local heroes arrest a couple heroin dealers. Maybe they will bust DIY next for undocumented potting soil sales.
Did they use their new military assault vehicle? Maybe with CHP helicopter back-up.
Are these some of the same people who reviewed the paperwork for the pre-start on the hole in the ground?
How many times have we endured traffic nightmares because of Granite Construction of Frehner using out of code material causing the project to be redone?