Personal Safety Issues Raised By Water Tank Job

Residents of Rockwood Parc subdivision in Eureka said they became suspicious when people they didn't know were walking down a secluded roadway for the past two nights, right next to their children's swingsets.

The area in question is a narrow access way to two of the city's water tanks, which happen to be nestled in the middle of the subdivision atop a small hill. The roadway runs up the hill in-between a handful of backyards. It is at the intersection of Viola Lane and Hunters Heights Drive. It also is a posted, no trespassing area that typically is blocked off by a locked gate.

Bill Rombach, whose property butts against the area fenced off around the water tanks, contacted Eureka-Wildwood Patch after subdivision residents called Eureka police last night to investigate the situation of strangers living out of a recreational trailer on the job site.

Rombach said they believed their children's safety was compromised, and they were concerned about not being notified by city officials regarding the situation.

"It's inappropriate at 7 p.m. for there to be workers walking from the tanks by our kids on our swingsets," he said.

He said the police arrived, and told him that "there was nothing they could do about it, if the city had hired them."

Rombach also said a neighbor told him one of the workers said:  "'if the noise of working gets too loud, to just call the police, and they will make us stop working, but my boss won't have us quit until then.'"

Rombach said he and his neighbors did not believe any of this was appropriate, so he contacted Eureka Mayor Kevin Coffey.

When Patch contacted Eureka city administrator Craig Sabo, he indicated that he was not aware of the situation and that he was not comfortable with it. He pledged to contact the company and ask them to find more typical housing accommodations.

Patch visited the job site and learned that the company is a Georgia-based business called Structural Contractors, Inc. The owners said they recently spent three years redoing 96 foresty towers for the state of Georgia.

They said cities typically have water tanks and towers redone every seven to 10 years. The 500,000-gallon steel tank they currently are working on for Eureka will take several more days to complete.

Sabo said after contacting the , he was told the reason that the tank-related crew was staying at the job site at night was because some of their equipment had been stolen.

Rombach said they noticed the crew there Monday and Tuesday evenings, but wondered why they wouldn't hire someone to handle security if that's the case.

"In fact, I suggested to the police that a much more appropriate place for this work crew to stay if they wanted to remain in their recreational vehicle would be on the parking lot of our nearby ," he said.

Rombach said the crew pulling a recreational vehicle up into the tank area in the middle of their backyards was what first caught their attention.