Lottery
Winner's Business Target of Complaints
More than 1,500 complaints
have been filed in a Wood County sewer project
being completed by a company owned by record
Powerball winner Jack Whittaker, about one complaint
for every customer the Union Williams Public
Service District project would serve.
Diversified Enterprise and its subcontractor,
Zion Inc., allegedly have sliced water, sewer,
gas and power lines, cut down trees and knocked
down fences, according to complaints filed with
the PSD, located in Waverly.
The sewer project started in March 2004 and
was supposed to be completed by last March,
said Jerry Dotson, general manager of the Union
Williams PSD. The number of complaints does
not mean that each of the approximately 1,500
customers sent one, Dotson said, as some complained
several times.
"We haven't been real happy with how some
of the complaints have turned out," Dotson
said.
Meanwhile, officials from the Affiliated Construction
Trades Foundation are calling for an investigation
into Whittaker's connections to Holley Brothers
Construction Co. Inc. of Gallipolis, Ohio.
The construction company owes more than $1.3
million to the West Virginia Workers' Compensation
Fund, said T.J. Obrakta, general counsel for
the Workers' Compensation Commission.
Whittaker said the complaints are without merit
and that the union has targeted him because
his company is nonunion.
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