A Pocola-based concrete contractor said on Wednesday that he has had his fill of trying to get paid for a job he completed for Fort Smith city director Keith Lau over four months ago and says his next step will be to file in small claims court on Thursday in an attempt to collect his money.
Bill Westbrook, owner and operator of Westbrook Concrete Construction LLC of Pocola, said when Lau's company was doing renovation to the former C&H Tire Company Building at 1121 Garrison Avenue in downtown Fort Smith his firm did $2127 in jackhammer work and repairs as a subcontractor on the project.
The area where Westbrook's Ccompany did the work now houses the Civil Axe Throwing facility. Westbrook said the people at Civil Axe Throwing said they didn't know the bill had gone unpaid and referred him back to Lau.
"We did the concrete work on the new park down there, and they were doing some plumbing and we jack-hammered out all the old concrete and poured and finished new material afterward," said Westbrook. "When it got about sixty days out I started trying to get in touch with the plumber (Benjamin James) but I couldn't get a return call."
Westbook says once the bill ran past 90 days, he contacted Lau personally.
"He told me they had some more work to do down there, but he would look into it and see about getting me a check," said Westbrook. "Now we're 120 days out and he's ignoring my texts and calls...in fact, when he told me on the phone at 90-days that he would see about getting me a check, my wife was sitting with me in the truck."
"She talked to him on the phone the other day and he acted like he didn't know anything about it and claimed he had never even talked to me about it," said Westbrook. "She let him know in a hurry that she was in the truck and heard the conversation."
This isn't the first time Lau's property management company has been called on the carpet. Last year, a Fort Smith woman who says she lived with gas leaks under her house and a falling down back porch for months, got "evicted" for "back rent" despite offering payment in full the day before she was scheduled in court on the eviction.
That woman claims Lau retaliated against her for seeking to have the rental property brought up to code.
Westbook says all he wants is to be paid what he owes and that had Lau communicated with and made an effort to rectify the situation, he wouldn't be going to small claims court on Thursday.
"In the grand scheme of things, it isn't that much money, but it's $2127 I don't have for work that we did in good faith," said Westbrook.
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