Smyrna man battles Kent on renovation

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Smyrna man battles Kent on renovation

Delaware

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M. Maxey Sr. says botched work on home by contractor led to

formation of mold

M. Maxey Sr. has vowed to burn down the house his family has

lived in for 14 years before he lets a certain contractor return to

make repairs.

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The News Journal/GARY EMEIGH M. Maxey Sr. says his home

was the location of Smyrna's first kindergarten.

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By JAMES MERRIWEATHER

The News Journal

03/19/2006

SMYRNA -- M. " Marty " Maxey Sr., has a lung ailment called

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sleep apnea and big blobs of

black mold growing behind a wall of his utility room. That

combination could well be hastening his demise, he thinks.

He's taken to sleeping with the aid of a breathing machine, but, so

far, has made no move to get rid of the mold, which has been

building up since last summer.

It's not his responsibility, he says, and he intends to do nothing

about roof leaks that spawned the health hazard until Kent County

officials authorize him to call in somebody of his own choosing to

fix them.

He blames the mold on a botched renovation project by a contractor

selected by the county, and he has vowed to burn down the house

before he lets the same company come in for repairs.

" I'll die before I let them in here, " Maxey, 48, said of his home on

South Street in Smyrna's historic district. The abode is a

candidate, he said, for the National Register of Historic Places as

the location of the town's first kindergarten. His family has owned

and lived in the house about 14 years.

" They had their shot, and they messed it up, " he said of the

original contractor. " I'm living in a mushroom factory, and nobody

seems to care. "

County officials, meanwhile, point to a contract between Maxey and

's General Contractors of Dover, calling particular attention

to a clause that shields the county from liability for " claims

related to breach of contract, negligence or faulty workmanship. "

The county administers the federally funded Community Development

Block Grant program, the source of an $18,951 grant for the

renovation of Maxey's house.

County attorney Fred A. Townsend III insists that Maxey's beef is

with the contractor.

" Our feeling is that the contractor should be entitled to an

opportunity to return to the premises and correct any defect that he

finds in his work, " Townsend said.

Albert Biddle who runs the grant program for Kent County said

renovation contracts go to the lowest responsible bidders on

individual projects. As a prospective bidder, 's was required

to be licensed and insured and to provide credit and work

references, Biddle said. The company had generated only a few minor

complaints while completing " multiple jobs " under the program.

Maxey played a role in 's selection, Biddle said, in the

sense that he signed a contract that authorized the company to work

on his home.

" They agreed to let that con-tractor come in, " he said. " It's still

his house, and he had to agree to let us work on it. "

managers could not be reached for comment. But Levy Court

Commissioner P. Banta, D-Smyrna, said his understanding was

that the company had agreed to make any needed repairs.

He also disputed Maxey's claim that he had " blown off " Maxey's

complaints to the county, saying he had taken lots of notes during

his own 60-minute inspection of the work in question.

" The bottom line was that the contractor was more than willing and

able to return to the site and make the necessary repairs, " Banta

said. " When I unveiled that to Mr. Maxey, he made comments to the

effect that he didn't want that contractor back on his property, and

that's where I left it. "

If he has to go to court, Maxey says, he'll seek an order for the

county to buy his house, as is, for $1.2 million or to settle his

grievances with a payment of $750,000 and an agreement to let him

choose a contractor to make the repairs without cost to him.

After the situation is handled, he intends to move with his 45-year-

old wife, LuAnn, to a Kentucky town near the Tennessee border with a

lake full of fish nearby.

Under the grant program, Maxey is obligated to hold onto the

renovated house for at least 10 years. If he gets rid of it before

then, he becomes responsible for paying back a prorated share of the

grant.

" I want the house fixed so I can sell out, move and buy another

home, " he said.

Maxey said the black mold developed as water leaked through a newly

installed roof, which, he said, features particleboard rather than

the preferred plywood as its base. He said his 20-year-old son,

, who works for a heating and air-conditioning company, found

the mold after moisture undermined the integrity of wall paneling

and put a cabinet in jeopardy of falling.

" The cabinet was hanging, so my son started working on it, " Maxey

said. " He said, 'You get out of here right now. You got black mold

growing here.' "

Out-of-pocket costs

According to Maxey, a subcontractor failed to insulate ductwork that

came with new heating and air-conditioning units. Its unwrapped

condition, he said, caused condensation that spawned a layer of

green mold on ceiling tiles along the path of the ductwork.

For whatever reason, Maxey said, workers also blocked off a chimney

that had served as a vent for carbon monoxide generated by a water

heater in the basement.

A crew from Chesapeake Utilities, returning July 25 to restore gas

service that had been shut down to accommodate the installation of a

new kitchen range and flooring, detected the dangerous condition and

refused to turn the gas back on until it was corrected. The Maxeys

dug into their own pockets to pay for a new water heater and pipes

to vent the poisonous gas outside.

" If it had been in the wintertime, and we would have been closed up

like we are now, we could have died, " said Maxey, who ran

unsuccessfully last year for a seat on Town Council.

'It's going to be a war'

Maxey retired from being a mechanic in December 2002, the victim of

back problems that required two rounds of surgery that reduced his

height, he said, from 6 feet 3 1/2 inches to 6 feet even. A Social

Security disability pension now represents his income. His wife, who

put in 25 years as purchasing administrator for the state Department

of Correction, retired to take care of him.

Now, a leg is threatening to conk out, but, even so, Maxey is

promising a court fight to the finish to force the county to buy his

house or pay for a contractor of his choosing to fix it up. So far,

he has not found a pro bono lawyer to take up his cause, but he says

he'll act as his own attorney if need be.

" Yes, I'm mad, I'm upset and I get madder every day, " Maxey

said. " It's going to be a war. I don't back down, and I don't lose. "

Contact Merriweather at 678-4273 or

jmerriweather@....