BY LINDA BENTLEY | JULY 7, 2010
Petite Acres, a microcosm of Cave Creek
‘The contractor is working with municipalities to meet all codes and regulations set forth to assure proper water distribution’
Petite Acres, a small trailer park located behind the Circle K store between Rico Plaza and the Hideaway Bar and Grill, has been home to a variety of newsmakers over the years.
Photo by Linda Bentley
CAVE CREEK – After the article, “Petite Acres issued Notice of Violation for water supply issues,” appeared in the June 23 edition, a variety of people came forward with something to say.
It started with a phone call from Roger Williamson, almost immediately after the papers hit the racks on Wednesday.
He said he hadn’t actually seen the article but claimed a couple people read it to him over the phone, and he wanted to know why his picture was in the paper after he said I told him I would only use a picture of his hand holding the pipe.
When Williamson came in the office a few weeks earlier to show me the section of pipe he replaced at Petite Acres, he gave me his name and the name of his company, Plumbing on the Side, all of which I wrote down after taking his picture.
At no time did Williamson ever make any special request to not have his picture in the paper, nor did we discuss taking a picture of just his hand holding the corroded pipe.
He then said I had the name of his company wrong. However, it was the name he provided when I took his picture and was the name he’d been using as an advertiser in Sonoran News.
Williamson said he’d recently changed the name of his company and it was now My Plumber.
I offered to print a correction and will now consider that done.
After this odd phone conversation, I became curious as to why he would change the name of his company, so I looked up his name and his company under both the old and new names on the Registrar of Contractors’ (ROC) website, only to come up empty.
I then looked up all the same information on the Arizona Corporation Commission’s website, but came up empty there as well.
Next, I looked up his Bulletin Board ads in Sonoran News, first his most recent one, which is the first time he’d run under the new name, My Plumber, and the ad displayed ROC# 236521.
Going back to the ROC’s website, I plugged in the license number, only to find it issued to Sun Country Residential, LLC and Rusty Catania of Glendale as the qualifying party. Catania holds a Class B Residential General Contractor’s license, originally issued in August 2007.
Looking back at Williamson’s prior ads for Plumbing on the Side, they stated, “not a licensed contractor.”
Contracting regulations allow a Class B General Contractor to perform construction of all or any part of a residential structure or appurtenance, except for electrical, plumbing, air conditioning systems, boilers, swimming pools, spas, and roofing (except shingles and shakes) which must be subcontracted to an appropriately licensed contractor.
In other words, one cannot contract plumbing work without a specialty plumbing license.
Additionally, a contractor cannot advertise under a name other than that to which the license was issued, as we pointed out when Chris Mellon was advertising under the name Chris Mellon and Company using a license issued to Back to Basics Corp. He had to formally change the name on his license to include the DBA Chris Mellon and Company.
Aside from the name change and inclusion of a license number, Williamson’s ad for My Plumber was changed to say “for all your plumbing needs,” instead of “for all your needs,” as stated in his Plumbing on the Side ad.
Then there’s Jimmy Moore, who starred in a couple of Sonoran News articles last year after getting into a fight with his Petite Acres neighbor Ken DePue.
Each pled guilty to assault and fighting charges with plea agreements that included suspended sentences for six months, and then dismissal of the charges against them in March 2010.
However, less than two months later, the two were apparently at it again and, following a hearing, Cave Creek Municipal Court Judge George Preston issued Moore an order of protection against DePue for harassment, which is currently in effect.
After the June 23 article came out, Moore stopped by our office last week to complain about DePue, who filed the complaint with Maricopa County about the water pressure issues that resulted in the notice being served on the owners of the trailer park.
He said DePue was outside watering every day, during the period of time Maricopa County was monitoring the water pressure levels, to ensure the pressure readings would be unacceptably low at his trailer.
We also heard from the owners of Petite Acres, who said they were unaware of the notice until reading about it in the paper and only received it in the mail on June 28. They issued the following statement:
“The owners of Petite Acres are using a reputable large-scale plumbing company, working on their behalf to insure water quality and pressure to the residents at Petite Acres.
“Any and all issues will be remedied by the contractor taking over and overseeing the project.
“The contractor is working with municipalities to meet all codes and regulations set forth to assure proper water distribution.
“If there are any further questions or concerns on the project, contact Steve at Diamondback Plumbing.”
As far as water issues go, Petite Acres is just a microcosm of Cave Creek, which is also completing a water pipe replacement project on the west side of Black Mountain where residents have been enduring similar water distribution problems for over a decade.
