Allegations of the Westminster Council wasting taxpayers? money resulted in an engineer defending two town projects.
Council Member Greg Pecoraro said Vitaly Feygin, of Westminster, questioned the safety of the Longwell parking garage and the need for a new water treatment plant at a meeting earlier this month.
“We felt that it was important as elected officials to demonstrate to everybody that there was no truth to allegations,” Pecoraro said.
Marco Legaluppi, executive vice president of Whitney, Bailey, Cox & Magnani, the Towson-based firm that designed the parking garage, near City Hall behind Main Street, told the council at Monday?s meeting that the facility was safe.
Feygin said Wednesday that he wasn?t concerned about the design or safety of the parking garage, but was questioning the need for the garage in the first place and the money wasted on repairing surface cracks.
Council members said Monday that a contractor ?not the city ? is paying for the repair of cracks discovered during construction.
Ben Movahed, president of Watek Engineering Corp., showed a presentation defending the need for a new water treatment plant to replace the current one off Route 31 on the edge of Westminster as well as the company?s credentials.
Pecoraro also said the current water treatment plant is 85 years old, situated in a flood plain and cannot properly handle certain emergency situations, as demonstrated by last year?s flooding, which caused dirty water and school cancellations.
Feygin said he works for Whitney, Bailey, Cox & Magnani but didn?t at the time of the parking garage?s construction several years ago.
Ever since the announcement a few weeks ago of property tax and sewer and water fee increases, the atmosphere at Westminster Council meetings has been tense, with talk of impeachments and allegations of wasting money.
“On one hand, it?s regrettable that one misinformed individual stirred up a controversy,” Pecoraro said. “But on the other hand, we can explain to people why we made the decisions we did.”
