Accountability for the expenditure of taxayer money is an essential component at all levels of government. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Big Dig in Boston or a high school construction project in Scarborough. Elected officials have the responsibility to ask questions to ensure work is done properly to protect the taxpayer’s interest and the welfare of our students.

It’s a fact that the new addition to the high school has already had three substantial backups in the sanitary piping. This was caused by a number of sags and standing water in the sanitary pipes, according to a memo from Facilities Director Norman Justice to Superintenent of Schools William Michaud. The memo further added that the work was not done according to contract documents and may require significant corrective action. However, when asked to make a public presentation, Mr. Justice changed his story. Don’t the taxpayers have a right to know?

For the record, the contractors did a major excavation in the first floor corridor of the new addition. This work inlcuded removing the flooring, jackhammering through the foundation slab, excavating down four feet to uncover the sanitary piping, compacting the trench properly, fixing the piping that was damaged, backfilling the trench, pouring a new slab and replacing the tile. This work went nearly the entire length of the corridor, under a classroom wall and into the janitors closet.

Nobody is questioning the quality of the corrective work. What I do question is how school officials continue to use words such as “minor” and “routine” to describe this issue. As a matter of fact, School Board member David Beneman was quoted in the local newspaper, saying “This is a totally normal kind of thing. It’s a very minor issue.”

Comments such as these lack credibility and lower public confidence in the ability of elected officials to manage tax dollars wisely. The corrective work is not normal or minor under any standard of measurement. If this were the case, then every new homeowner should expect a sewer smell in their home and a major excavation similar to the one descibed above to occur in the main area of their home.

School Board Chairman Robert Mitchell invited councilors to come to the School Board meeting to ask questions. I had a prior commitment so I submitted a series of questions on this issue. These questions were met with disdain by certain members of the School Board. Let me take a moment to explain the rationale behind a couple of these questions.

My first question concerned the compaction of the trenches. Several newspapers reported that the sags were caused by insufficient packing below the pipes. It is reasonable to assume that if the compaction wasn’t done properly in one trench then it may not have been done properly in other trenches as well. This led to my suggestion to use fiber optic cameras to observe sanitary piping elsewhere in the building to ensure there aren’t any other sags that may cause us trouble further down the road.

This suggestion was rejected out of hand by Mr. Justice because, in his opinion, it would be very expensive and they haven’t experienced issues elsewhere in the building. First off, it wouldn’t be very expensive to have EcoClean come in for a few hours to do this work. The Scarborough Sanitary District has this equipment and may be able to work out something even less expensive. Secondly, I’ve heard from folks that work in the building that the kitchen area has experienced sewer smells during the past year. It would seem that it would be cheap money for peace of mind.

I also asked if air quality testing was done (it wasn’t). Decomposing sewage produces methane gas. Hydrogen sulfide gas can result from bacterial breakdown from organic material such as human waste. These gases can at times be odorless. The school reportedly had an overflow that required the cleanup of human waste. The acid neutralization tank was totally contaminated with sanitary waste so it would appear these gases may have been present.

I don’t know the right answers to these questions, but I do know these questions are legitimate, regardless of whether they came from the School Board or the Town Council. Both bodies have an inherent responsibility to the citizens of Scarborough to ensure public health and safety, as well as to ensure the $27 million the taxpayers authorized for this building is spent properly.

It’s an interesting strategy to make the Town Council the issue. The issue is the building that is already having major problems in the first couple of years of existence. The Town Council did not make up the issue of problems with the sanitary piping. School administration should welcome questions rather than being so defiant in answering them.

Lastly, Council Chairman Steve Ross was invited to participate in the School Board meeting. Mr. Ross is as fine and decent a human being as you would ever want to meet. It’s unfortunate and sad he was ambushed and publicly humiliated by Mr. Beneman on issues totally unrelated to the sanitary piping problems. This type of behavior is outrageous and has no place in the public deliberation process. Mr. Beneman should offer Mr. Ross an unconditional public apology for his bullying tactics.

Jeffrey Messer

Scarborough Town Council