$70,000 in pipe missing; or, business as usual

By Chelsea Boozer
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

“More than $70,000 of surplus pipe is missing from a Little Rock Wastewater Utility storage area, and sewer officials think the material was hauled off by a friend of a high-ranking manager already under police scrutiny in connection with questionable expenditures, a utility spokesman said Monday.

“Debbie Williams, the utility’s accounting supervisor over capital projects, planned to have the pipe scrapped and sold at auction this year because it’s been sitting in storage at the Adams Field Treatment Facility since 1996, but when she sent workers to take photos Dec. 20, the pipe wasn’t there.

“Williams said she questioned Eric Wassell, the last superintendent stationed at the wastewater-treatment plant. He told her that Operations Manager Stan Miller had a friend haul off the concrete pipe sometime in 2011, she said.

“The missing pipe includes 1,255 feet of 42-inch diameter pipe and 416 feet of 60-inch pipe, sewer utility officials said.”

(The pipe sat there for 15 years? And, other than a high-ranking manager reportedly/allegedly having a friend haul it away, nobody considered what to do with it?)

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2013/dec/31/lr-utility-surplus-pipe-missing-20131231/