Nick McWilliams reporting – Another project spearheaded by former Dover Light and Power Superintendent Dave Filippi is being scrapped.
Filippi, who was granted his retirement amid investigations into massive cost overruns of around $300,000 while at the plant, authorized several projects without council approval and allegedly hid them by breaking up purchase orders into smaller amounts, or without asking for purchase orders at all.
New Superintendent Jason Hall made the city aware of another project that had not received approval, which involved five heat exchangers being repaired for use for a potential light plant expansion.
Council President Justin Perkowski brought the matter to the floor at a recent meeting.
“RCE contacted Superintendent Jason Hall, relaying to him that the equipment is basically beyond repair, taking up floor space in their facility. RCE would either like reimbursement for the storage at a cost of $4,500, or for RCE to take possession of the heat exchangers, and they would scrap them at an estimated cost of $2,500.”
The items were a part of a transaction with a generator from the town of Shelby.
Interim Mayor Shane Gunnoe said that the situation was different for the city this time around, thanks to the Carrollton company not starting work without proper signatures.
“Fortunately for us, unlike other situations that we ran into in 2021, the company did not proceed without a purchase order to do any sort of overhaul or repair of this equipment. Mr. Hall does not believe that we have any sort of use for them, absent some sort of large-scale expansion.”
He made clear that at this time, there is no intent to expand the plant, and that the city had no knowledge of the parts being sent to RCE Heat Exchangers from Carrollton for repair.
The city ultimately decided to sign over the parts to RCE for scrap.
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