Moniker vs. McGrath: Hoosick St Update

From: Mark.McGrath <Mark.McGrath@troyny.gov>
Date: Mon, May 21, 2018 at 1:51 PM
Subject: Re: Wall collapse.
To: "Monica.Kurzejeski" <Monica.Kurzejeski@troyny.gov>
Cc: "Patrick.Madden" <patrick.madden@troyny.gov>, All City Council Members <AllCityCouncilMembers@troyny.gov>


Thank you for the response. The problem I see in the way your administration operates is clear. You have a code inspector with limited education monitoring a project that should be under the auspice of a licensed engineer. Russ Reeves or Andrew Donavan would have been all over this project. We’re paying for a consulting firm yet they fail to monitor the projects. We’re being shortchanged. Before you respond about our budgetary problems please note you and the mayor feel it’s more important to employ a political spokesman, OGS Commissioner and a recycling employee instead of a licensed engineer. By going this route you’re ultimately putting Troy’s residents in potentially dangerous positions. But hey, you’re in charge.

Sent from my iPhone

On May 21, 2018, at 12:29 PM, Monica.Kurzejeski <Monica.Kurzejeski@troyny.gov> wrote:

Good afternoon Mark,



After meeting with planning and code this morning to review the project files, I stand corrected; Wayne did not review this plan. I answered too quickly before I had a chance to review the project file and verify. I can certainly say that won’t happen again. To clarify – since an engineer is not funded in the city budget, we utilize either Wayne or our engineering firm when needs arise. Wayne has reviewed other projects that require an engineering review.



The project went through normal planning, zoning and permit review with the architectural and engineering designs that were stamped by a licensed professional. The job has a code inspector that performs our normal inspections. I will tell you that there were concerns raised by our inspector to the contractor and construction manager late last week and we asked for additional engineering review on the contractors work.

After the collapse, the fire department and code were called to the site. (I will note at this time that the pictures that are being circulated are pictures after the contractor was asked by us to take the remaining blocks down to prevent further collapse.) Mark, what you came upon was after that point, not how the collapse happened.

To go one step further – I did meet with the planning and code departments this morning to talk about process and to review everything that occurred since last week on this particular site. We’ve made some modifications to the process including a routing sheet that will lead a project through the appropriate steps of planning and permitting. Again, this project went through planning and zoning review, has licensed stamped drawings, a permit and a contractor working on site. It is a private work site that had an incident that the property owner is working to resolve.

In the meantime, Stewarts is bringing in their engineer to review the situation and the site to determine where the failure occurred and provide a solution to the problem. We will work with them through our engineering firm, at their cost, to review their plan provided by their engineer. It is up to the owner and the contractor to perform the work necessary to build appropriately. As was done last week, our code inspector when reviewing the work has the ability to ask for additional detail, to halt work and to make sure that the work is being done in accordance with the engineering plans put forward by the owner.

Hopefully this answers your concerns.

Take care,

Monica