Not long after the City of Redlands issued a a temporary meter for installation and then they locked the water supply to the meter, so that Tom’s Burgers could continue construction and possibly open later this year, “Troy, the City’s construction supervisor, came and looked at my nice, neat box in the ground and approved it,” said Raul Madrid, who spoke with Troy. The temporary water meter was installed on the lateral, or pipe from the street, and the piping into the restaurant. “The City locked the temporary meter because they wanted a standpipe and a drawing of how the temporary service would look. I hadn’t provided the drawing; in building hundreds of homes in the Inland Empire, I’ve never had to submit a drawing for a temporary water connection, when the permanent meter will be in the box in the ground where the temporary meter previously was. The standpipe they want gets in the way of construction and can get damaged when the landscaping and paving are taking place.”
Perry Karpouzis, owner of the would-be restaurant on the Boulevard, began building the restaurant, sibling to Tom’s Burgers in Redlands, after obtaining his construction permit from the County in about 2009. During construction, he reported that the water meter, in place for decades for previous businesses and other buildings, was leaking. The City Water Department came and removed it, leaving the pipe from the street, and padlocking the on-off valve.
Redlands then imposed fees of $656,000 on Karpouzis, including a “traffic study” from and back to State Highway 38, also known as Mentone Boulevard, in order for him to obtain water service. On Karpouzis’ behalf, Madrid later got the city to come down to $55,000, as a fee to re-hook up the meter. He then showed the City that the pipe from the street was in place already, so that the $55,000 in fees should not apply. “Karpouzis had paid over $2500 to have the temporary meter hooked up,” Madrid advised.
2 Replies to “TOM’S BURGERS LOSES WATER SERVICE!”
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Sounds like Redlands is playing disaster capital games with this project when all that should have been required in the first place is to upgrade the water service. And by cutting off the water isn’t the City creating a disaster anyway, like as fire hazard maybe??
They didn’t even need to do that, Steve. All they had to do was replace the old leaking one that they had left in place for decades; what would they have done if someone stole the water and they didn’t monitor it? Read my newest article for the latest. J