The 2nd of a Continuing and rather Lengthy Series of Articles
The “Oilwell Road Caper”
“Given the company’s compliance history, how did Tew’s get the Oilwell Road project?”
- The state citations are the latest in a long history of problems for Tew’s
- The work was marred by complaints from residents and borough staff about speeding trucks and improperly licensed drivers
- The Alaska Wage and Hour Administration on March 19 notified Tew’s that it owed more than $36,000 in back wages and per diem pay to workers
- Alaska Occupational Safety and Health in late March cited both Tew’s and the borough for eight violations including workers not wearing hard hats while working under a nearly 3,000-pound culvert pipe and working in a trench without cave-in protection
- Alaska Occupational Safety and Health is proposing $4,050 in safety penalties for Tew’s but more than $12,000 for the borough, according to notices issued in late March
- The borough is being cited because it had employees on the scene exposed to the same hazards, Bailey said
- Tew’s had more than $1.6 million in borough contracts last year, including the salmon culvert project, the Big Lake area road-service contract and a waste-hauling contract
- The company also has the worst compliance record of any company with borough contracts to maintain roads, according to borough records. Documents show more than 85 notices from the borough regarding problems on Tew’s contracts between 2001 and 2015. The borough then issued 22 letters of non-compliance after finding the company hadn’t fixed the problems. And 3 (Three) Terminations (Click for details)
Mat-Su contractor faces safety, wage citations over troubled salmon project
“WASILLA — State officials have charged a Big Lake contractor with safety and wage violations for its work last year on a troubled, federally-funded salmon restoration project near Trapper Creek.
The contractor, Tew’s Inc., is well known in the Valley for its pink-painted equipment and its Mat-Su Borough road contracts and garbage hauling.
The state citations are the latest in a long history of problems for Tew’s. Security cameras set up by the borough to watch the salmon-restoration job site captured a couple of workers drinking beer in midafternoon and another giving a child a ride on a big front-end loader without strapping the child into the seat. Neither set of photos, provided to Alaska Dispatch News in response to a public records request, figured into the citations.
The state accused Tew’s of numerous violations that occurred during work last year, including unpaid wages and unsafe digging practices.
The borough, which contracted Tew’s to perform the work for about $664,000, also faces fines stemming from the safety citations.”
Image of Clayton “Mokie” Tew and at least one other individual in an unsafe trench, without any safety equipment, from https://mokietew.com/ unaltered. Labeled “TewPipe.jpg” by Mokie.
Tew’s Inc/LLC/ Clayton “Mokie” Tew, et al are the Borough Experts, so this would not apply, especially to little girls and workers drinking beer:
What are the dangers of trenching and excavation operations?
Trenching and excavation work presents serious hazards to all workers involved. Cave-ins pose the greatest risk and are more likely than some other excavation-related incidents to result in worker fatalities. One cubic yard of soil can weigh as much as a car. An unprotected trench can be an early grave. Employers must ensure that workers enter trenches only after adequate protections are in place to address cave-in hazards. Other potential hazards associated with trenching work include falling loads, hazardous atmospheres, and hazards from mobile equipment.
“The state citations are the latest in a long history of problems for Tew’s.
Security cameras set up by the borough to watch the salmon-restoration job site captured a couple of workers drinking beer in midafternoon and another giving a child a ride on a big front-end loader without strapping the child into the seat.
Neither set of photos, provided to Alaska Dispatch News in response to a public records request, figured into the citations.”
Wait, not strapping a child into the seat while the ‘adults’ are already “Noon Beer Thirty” seems perfectly reasonable. The child probably worked there, and had a beer also. And the workers have too many DUI’s, are unlicensed, and another couple would violate their conditions of release. So, let the kids drive the stuff!
The article continues: “Borough officials say the restoration project, installing three culverts on remote Oilwell Road, represented a more complex job than usual for Tew’s. The company declined several requests for comment.
Tew’s wrapped up work on the Oilwell Road project in late October. The work was marred by complaints from residents and borough staff about speeding trucks and improperly licensed drivers, according to numerous interviews and documents obtained by Alaska Dispatch News through a series of records requests.
The Alaska Wage and Hour Administration on March 19 notified Tew’s that it owed more than $36,000 in back wages and per diem pay to workers.
Alaska Occupational Safety and Health in late March cited both Tew’s and the borough for eight violations including workers not wearing hard hats while working under a nearly 3,000-pound culvert pipe and working in a trench without cave-in protection.
Inspection: 998125.015 – Tew’S Inc. OSHA.gov https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=998125.015
Borough faces penalties
Alaska Occupational Safety and Health is proposing $4,050 in safety penalties for Tew’s but more than $12,000 for the borough, according to notices issued in late March.
The borough is being cited because it had employees on the scene exposed to the same hazards, Bailey said.
As for the wage case, the state will probably issue a new notice to Tew’s reducing the claim of owed back pay after the company provided canceled checks showing workers got paid, Mitchell said. [ED: There are questions about this that are being investigated-TBLT] The new amount will be in “the thousands,” he said.
“Because if it turns out that they willfully committed these violations, they put people’s lives in jeopardy,” he said. “I think that’s something the borough really has to look at and say, ‘Is this the type of contractor that we want working for us?’ “
by Dennis Garrett 18 October 2023
Source: https://www.adn.com/mat-su/article/state-hits-big-lake-contractor-safety-wage-citations-troubled-salmon-project/2015/04/13/ Alaska Dispatch Publishing By Zaz Hollander
Updated: September 28, 2016 Published: April 12, 2015
Additional reading from: Mat-Su Borough terminates ‘last chance’ road contract with Big Lake firm
Anchorage Daily News: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/mat-su/2016/10/21/mat-su-borough-terminates-last-chance-road-contract-with-big-lake-company/
Contact info mokietew@gmail.com 907-841-8688 This image is from mokietew.com for re-election.
The Big Lake Times 
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