News Briefs

Lien filed to recover money from Robert’s Roofing

Kropp Equipment Inc. filed a lien with the city of Milwaukee to recover $7,451 it claims Robert’s Roofing & Siding Inc. owes for renting equipment.

Kropp, based in Schererville, Ind., filed a lien with the city of Milwaukee against the city’s Material Recovery Facility at 1313 W. Mount Vernon Ave. Robert’s this year rented equipment from Kropp for its $317,686 contract with the city of Milwaukee to install a roof at the Material Recovery Facility.

Bob Peret, president of Robert’s Roofing, said he is not familiar with the lien but that Robert’s will resolve the situation.

He said the company also is working with five pension trust funds representing roofers and sheet metal workers which notified the city of Pewaukee of their intent to file a lien to recover roughly $50,000 from Robert’s Roofing. The payments are for the benefits programs of employees that worked on Robert’s contract to re-roof Pewaukee City Hall.

“We had some cash-flow issues due to large jobs and we are reconciling it right now,” Peret said.

MMSD sells 255 acres to Oak Creek for business park, school

The city of Oak Creek and Wispark LLC partnered to buy 169 acres of land for $5.4 million and plan to develop a business park.

The purchase was part of a 255-acre land sale the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District finalized this week. The sale includes the Wispark business park, a 36-acre nature preserve and a 50-acre site the Oak Creek-Franklin School District bought for $1.6 million to develop a new school.

The business park would be the first in Oak Creek for Wispark, the Milwaukee-based subsidiary of Wisconsin Energy Corp.

Power plant company expects 500 construction workers

Spiritwood, ND (AP) — After a tough winter and a mud-filled spring, Great River Energy is trying to make up for lost time in building its $276 million power plant.

Construction site manager Dennis Pozarnsky said 300 workers were on the site Monday, about 10 miles east of Jamestown, and about 20 a day are being added until the number reaches 500.

“By winter, we have to be enclosed,” he said, then joked, “and winter could happen any day now.”

Spring flooding left mud about 3 feet deep and made the site dangerous for workers and equipment. It was shut down for a couple of weeks in April and early May for safety reasons.

“We did a lot of site work on the drainage,” Pozarnsky said. “For two, three weeks, it was very unsafe on the site.”