American Shingle Roofing “has been forced to close its doors due to significant financial hardship.”
That is the message countless Middle Tennesseans who did business with the controversial roofing company are now receiving.
Messed Up has obtained a copy of the document which states the following:
American Shingle has been forced to close its doors due to significant financial hardship. Under advisement of counsel we are beginning an orderly wind down of the business. American Shingle will continue to collect the money owed to us for completed work. Any monies collected will be used to refund our creditors, which is inclusive of the homeowners whose roofs have not yet been installed.
Your patience and cooperation in this process is appreciated. In the near future all homeowners with roofs yet to be installed will receive additional information regarding the status of their refund
Regretfully,
American Shingle Customer Accounts
Messed Up has tried repeatedly to get someone, anyone from American Shingle on the phone.
We have called the Nashville office, the Atlanta office and even the Charlotte office.
We get the same recording at each: “Due to high call volumes… blah, blah, blah…”
What is happening is exactly what many at the Better Business Bureau and the roofing industry predicted would.
To try and erase the negative stigma that American Shingle has cast on the entire roofing industry in Middle Tennessee, reputable area roofers decided to give back.
There are countless families who need help, but by the winds of luck, the family that is getting a new roof is William Sneed who lives in Woodbine.
We met Sneed by accident on August 17 at the main office for American Shingle in south Nashville.
It was the usual story. Sneed’s insurance company had authorized thousands of dollars to American Shingle to fix Sneed’s roof. Weeks and weeks went by and nothing happened.
All Star Roofing owner Steve Morgan saw the story and contacted his friends in the roofing business. He called ABC Roofing and the good people at the Home Depot.
Morgan got the companies to donate time and materials and they plan to do the job that American Shingle did not.
“It’s a point of watching people get taken advantage of and a black eye [for the roofing industry] and I called some guys. They donated the shingles and the felt and the nails.”
Morgan wants to remind citizens that there are plenty of good roofers in Middle Tennessee.
“Call the BBB the next time before doing business. Check with the state and ask for insurance and licensing and bonds and get references. Don’t make a split decision. [Fly by night roofers] are fast talkers.”
What surprises me is how emotional Bill Sneed’s wife is about the roofing issue.
Rachel Sneed is coming up on 72 years of age and she has not been in good health. With lip quivering and emotions super charged she thanks the roofers and Channel 2 for her good fortune, but she also has caustic words for the people of American Shingle.
“I think it is great what [the roofers] are doing here. It put me in bed three days, I was so sick. I called every number on that paper, and they never answered. I knew something was going on. It makes me [not trust] people, till I met these people here and Channel 2. God bless [the roofers].”
I bring up the other countless victims in Middle Tennessee and she becomes more emotional.
“I feel sorry for them. My heart goes out to them. I prayed for not just us, but I prayed for all the others who were taken. I know how they feel. I cried I was so upset. I have lost so much weight. I had a funny feeling something was wrong. My husband is sick. He’s had seven major surgeries. I don’t think he would have turned that check over to them, but they out talked him. They were smart and shrewd. I pray to God, that they catch them. I want them in jail. For the pain they have caused me, the pain, and for the other people not just me. Those other poor people, they are crooks!”
The BBB says customers should still register all complaints with them.
Messed Up has contacted the Tennessee Attorney General’s office where sources say it is possible state and/or federal authorities could get involved.
A White’s Creek landowner says a nearby construction site is causing his parking lot to fill with mud after it rains.
Dwain Davenport owns a building on Hickory Hill. He says before the construction of a nearby apartment complex, his lot never flooded. Now he says it happens frequently.
Davenport says to clean up a half inch of mud in the large lot can take hours.
Davenport complained to the city, which told him the construction site is not the source of the problem.
Sonia Harvat of the Metro Water Department explains in the email below.
Andy,
This was inspected and placed in our system the end of May by an inspector who submitted a work order. A crew chief went out in July and has the work tentatively scheduled for August 23. I am not sure what he means by “nobody will help him.”
A MWS inspector was there on May 21, 2010 to investigate a flooding complaint. There were three existing inlets full of dirt with grass growing on top. That dirt did not appear to come from the construction site and appeared to have been there for some time. Our inspector met with Mr. Davenport onsite and explained the process to him and told him it might be a while before they could be cleaned out due to the recent flood remediation work being done. We received another call from Mr. Davenport in July about the same issue and explained that the request was in our system.
After Messed Up gets involved, Harvat says Metro crews will clean out the storm drains and verify that they are clear and able to flow properly.
City Councilman Walter Hunt also comes to the location at the request of That Is Messed Up.
“If that is a problem up there, I know the builders. They will fix it,” Hunt says.
Hunt would later tell me he insists that the builders put down gravel on the hill and maintain the road to minimize possible mud run off when it rains.
Mr. Davenport seems pleased, sending me the email below.
This will help. Mr. Walter Hunt called me later in the day and told me about the stone.
I believe the only reason anything is getting done is because of you. I want to thank you for your help.
-Dwain Davenport
It’s been more than 100 days since the flood and Middle Tennesseans everywhere still feel the pain.
In Hendersonville, floodwaters damaged the bridge over Drake’s Creek on Stop 30 Road.
With the bridge out, residents are severely inconvenienced experiencing long drives and frequent traffic jams.
The city has put in a stop light at the only passable intersection to the Stop 30 community, but still residents are frustrated wondering when the bridge will be fixed.
Pictures from the city’s Web site show the bridge underwater and the subsequent damage.
Don Long is the city of Hendersonville mayoral assistant and tells Messed Up the city is very aware of the resident’s frustrations.
“This bridge was built in the 1940s,” Long tells me. “There was a lot of upstream damage underneath it. We had an engineer look at it and his recommendation was to close it to make sure it is safe, especially for school buses.”
Long says the city has been in contact with both FEMA and TDOT regarding what needs to be done, how much it might cost and who will ultimately pay for it.
“We have three options. We can replace a portion of the bridge, we can replace all of the bridge or we can widen the bridge and raise it,” Long explains.
He says FEMA is working with the city but obviously, in light of May’s flood, has a lot of projects to consider.
Long estimates that it could cost up to $800,000 to fix the bridge, which he says would be expanded to three lanes with a sidewalk and raised so it would not flood every time Drake’s Creek floods.
Residents meet with Messed Up and Long to express their concerns.
Tom Bruce has lived in the community for six years.
We stand in front of an old city vehicle that is being used as a barricade to keep traffic from crossing the bridge.
“Shopping is up there,” Bruce says pointing past the blockade, “restaurants and Joseph Bank clothing store and theaters and Walmart.”
Paula Johnson has similar concerns.
“We feel this bridge should be fixed or reopened. It’s hindering all these people. The city doesn’t realize what a burden this is,” he says.
Phillip Witherspoon has this to say: “The traffic back up and delays, the whole subdivision is one way in and one way out. There was a wreck up there the other day [and] it had everything tied up for hours.”
Sue Varboncoeur is concerned about emergency crews getting in and out.
So is Kaitlyn Haley.
“My grandma lives down the road and she had a stroke. My mom could get to her in three minutes, now it is more like 15 minutes and she might not make it.”
As fate would have it, while we are doing this story, a Sumner County ambulance races down Stop 30 Road to the bullet riddled Hendersonville vehicle blocking the bridge.
A female EMT hangs out the window and begins shouting for News 2 camera man Al Devine and I to move the vehicle.
It quickly becomes obvious that the crew has no ideas the city has blocked off the bridge.
“Hey, we got to get through,” the woman shouts. “What is on the other side of the truck?” she hollers.
The woman asks if the vehicle is mine, and I tell her no, it is the city of Hendersonville’s property.
“Are you kidding me?” I shout. “They didn’t tell you about this?”
“No,” she hollers as the ambulance races backward and does a three point turn to find its way to the location.
As it turns out the emergency was not life-threatening, but it does illustrate how a call on that side of the bridge can be delayed because the bridge is out, for possibly another year and a half.
“That is a problem,” I say bluntly to Mr. Long.
“Yes. 911 should be aware not to route them this way,” he says.
The director of Sumner County EMS tells Messed Up that the one crew was unaware of the bridge out, but all other crews have been reminded.
If you’ve been to Waldron Road in LaVergne recently you know what confusion looks like.
TDOT and the city are expanding parts of the road from two to five lanes.
The $11 million project, between Murfreesboro Road and I-24, will eventually make Waldron more traffic friendly but for the next 15 months, many motorists and business will be seeing red, or in this case, orange.
One of several businesses in the labyrinth of orange is Wine and Spirits Unlimited, where the sign outside the store reads, “Worth the wait.”
Jeremy Sargent manages the store and told Messed Up the construction chaos is affecting the bottom line.
“I don’t understand why barrels are placed like they are and the work is much further down the road and this has been cordoned off for three weeks,” he said. “Why have a 50 foot bottle neck, instead of a 1,000 foot bottle neck all the way down the road.”
“What have you experienced?” I ask.
“We have seen a significant drop off. People don’t want to come here because of the barrels, the way they are situated, they get lost,” he replied.
BJ Doughty at TDOT explains it this way.
“We don’t want a business to go out of business because of project,” she said. “We realize there is pain associated with a road way project and we know it is unpleasant, but if there are things we can do to ease problems we will do that.”
When asked why the road was blocked off in front of the liquor store even though workers are 1,000 feet away, Doughty replied, “We are tearing up a bridge and if we don’t funnel traffic well beforehand people might drive into a hole. There is a method to the madness regarding traffic control in work zones. This is part of keeping the motoring public safe and our workers safe.”
TDOT says the project should be done by Thanksgiving 2011.
The Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee says complaints continue to pour in regarding the American Shingle roofing company.
The watch dog agency says the Atlanta-based company has an F-rating for allegedly taking customer insurance money and then not fixing roofs, or providing refunds in a timely manner.
Messed Up has learned of six families on Blue Springs Road, all in one cul-de-sac, who feel like they have been scammed.
Roxanne Turner lives in the 4800 block. Her neighbor around the corner is Kim Noseworthy.
The women have more in common than living on the same street.
Both women have American Shingle Roofing signs in their front yards. Both women are frustrated. Both women want their roofs fixed or their money returned.
Turner says she has been dealing with the Atlanta Roofing Co. since April 15. She says she’s had a blue tarp spread across her roof for months now.
“I’ve been waiting for three months,” she says.
“I got an appointment for June 9 and that got close, then [American Shingle] said it will be the end of June, then beginning of July, then the third week of July, now it is tomorrow. They put a dumpster in yard.”
Turner says she signed over $1,800 to the company in mid-April.
She says the excuses are wearing her out.
“The first time they could not do it, they said they were backed up from floods, and then they said they want to make sure materials were right, they didn’t want to use shoddy materials. They tell me they are backing it up again.”
I ask if she is mad.
“That is not the word. It is messed up,” she says.
About this time, Noseworthy arrives with her child in tow. The women seem to meet for the first time and immediately they have something in common.
“Like you I have one of those in my yard,” Noseworthy says pointing to the American Shingle sign in Turner’s front yard “They were supposed to do my job today. A week ago, they said it was pushed back to Sept 23, something about material and supply issues.”
Noseworthy says luckily her insurance company stopped payment on the check to American Shingle.
“What is it that is messed up? For me, they came out in March got our roof looked at, and an adjuster from insurance company said, ‘Yes, you need one,’ so it was approved. We got all our paperwork in, phone calls from project coordinator were made, we got the insurance check for $3,459.64, this is dated 5/21/10,” she says while holding out the check. “I am extremely frustrated. I thought this was legit. I heard nothing against them.”
The women are mad that they have one or two day roofing jobs and it is taking 90-days to get their roofs fixed.
I tell them they are just two unsatisfied customers in a cul-de-sac with four other alleged victims.
The women are sweating mad by this point and simply say over the top of one another, “Make it right. Fix my damn roof. Or give me my money back.”
That was Thursday.
Messed Up immediately hit the phones and email and began complaining in behalf of the people on Blue Springs Road.
Mrs. Turner reports those complaints paid off because by this weekend crews were on her roof.
As of Monday, August 2 her roof was half way done. By phone she says, “The back half is done and half the front is done. I think your calls definitely got them out here.”
Mrs. Noseworthy tells us that nobody from American Shingle has contacted her. She says it could be because her insurance company stopped payment on the check.
A woman who claims to run the roofing company on Turner’s roof refused to tell us her company’s name.
She said she subcontracts to American Shingle and she says that she has no direct contact with the main office.
When I asked about the coincidence of my calls and the roof being completed, she laughed and said it was a strange coincidence.
We’ll have more on this company and possible legislation to tighten control over the industry in future editions of “That is Messed Up.”
In the meantime, below are some other items we have learned about the company and its license with the state.
Andy,
I found out a little bit more information about American Shingle. The company is licensed through the Dept. of Commerce and Insurance’s Contractors Board. In order to be licensed, a company must have a $10,000 surety bond and if there are one or more employees, workers comp insurance.
Eight counties, including Davidson, require a home improvement contractor’s license for projects over $3,000 but less than $25,000.
Also, the contractor’s board and the consumer affairs division have each received one complaint against American Shingle.
Blake Fontenay
Communications Director
Tennessee Departments of Comptroller, State and Treasury
Multiple emails to American Shingle’s PR representative yielded this response:
Andy:
I sent these to our legal department, as I am out of the office this week.
When we bought our house in Murfreesboro, we were told we got an upgrade on the cabinet, hardwood floor in the kitchen and stainless steel appliance, all but the refrigerator, which we had to buy at $1,500.00. We tried a magnet on it with the construction manager standing there and none of us knew why it didn’t stick. We took up the hardwood to put down tile and the vibrating machine did not touch the stove, but the vibrations busted the front of the stove and it was plastic. I have a stainless steel top cart in there and a magnet will stick to it. I think a lot of people are getting rooked by this builder. We have a home owners association, but what can they do? I’m not sure that the people here know that the appliances are fake stainless steel. Our number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. If you come here, give me time to straighten up the kitchen.
My housemate works midnights and our hours are different. We don’t do things at the times other people do them.
After a close call between a train and a school bus in Sumner County, residents demanded action.
Kerri Collins lives on Keytown Road. To get to her home, she has to cross a one lane wooden bridge and two railroad tracks.
Like other residents in the area, she says the railroad tracks are in need of gates and flashing lights and says that need was magnified when a train nearly struck a school bus full of students.
“A school bus almost got hit. I kept thinking there are kids on the bus. He came across the bridge. A moment later the train whistle blew and it was so scary,” she recalled.
Collins contacted CSX after the incident, who wrote her back but not much else was accomplished.
She then contacted That Is Messed Up.
I called CSX, where officials said the railroad has no authority to regulate vehicle traffic in Sumner County.
I then called the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
Spokesperson BJ Doughty says by luck, the old wooden bridge is scheduled to be replaced and because the railroad tracks are within 200 feet of the new bridge project, warning lights and gates will be included in the project.
According to Doughty, it will cost about $200,000 to replace the bridge and more than $350,000 to install the warning devices.
When told the good news, Kerri Collins is pleased.
“There are a lot of families who are concerned,” she said. “I think that something being done will make many people happy.”
The Sumner County Sheriff’s Department reports there have been no fatal accidents at the crossing. Residents want to keep it that way.
The project is scheduled to begin by the end of the year.
More trouble for a Nashville Realty Company that has recently been in the news:
In the wake of a Messed Up investigation, Metro Public Works, Codes, and the Metro Health Department are all taking action against Barrett Realty Company.
The latest complaints center around city owned trash cans at 3 Barrett Properties. These trash cans are full of construction grade material, some of which has spilled into a nearby culvert.
Metro officials say it is not the city’s job to pick up these trash containers at the expense of tax payers.
Mike Brandle has lived on Barrett Drive for 10 years. The house next to Brandle’s is a Barrett run property. Brandle told us this property is currently empty and being renovated.
On the day Messed Up arrived in this South Nashville neighborhood, it was trash day, and garbage cans lined the street. The 3 cans in front of the Barrett owned property at 412 Barrett Drive were over flowing with what appears to be roofing material.
Brandle said these garbage cans are out here all the time, and that these cans have been over flowing with construction material like this for weeks.
We drove around the neighborhood to look at other Barrett properties. We found trash cans filled with similar construction grade material, and, at one location, the cans were turned over and in the culvert.
We returned to the neighborhood hours later. The city garbage trucks had rolled through, and most of the cans had been removed from the street. The cans next to Mr. Brandle’s home were still at the curb, however the roofing material was gone, replaced with contractor grade trash bags.
We spoke with Billy Lynch who heads up the Metro Public Works Department. He said Barrett’s use of the city owned trash cans is a clear violation.
According to Lynch, city haulers should not pick up debris like this because it is against the following code:
10.20.290 Building debris–Responsibility for removal.
A. Building debris such as scrap lumber, plaster, roofing, concrete, brickbats, and sanding dust resulting from the construction, repair, remodeling or demolition of any building or appurtenances on private property will not be removed by the department of public works, and the owner must cause such materials and waste to be privately moved.
Lynch said the construction material exceeds the weight limitations for a 96 gallon container. He also said the haulers removed the Barrett cans because citizens complained about the way they looked. Lynch said the company is abusing the city service, and that his agency picked up all the city owned garbage receptacles at the 3 Barrett addresses we visited. Lynch also said Public Works mailed a letter of violation for each address to the realty company.
Metro Codes also confirmed it has an active investigation on the three Barrett properties. Metro Health has issued the company a notice to clean up the spilled trash at 408 Wimpole.
Once again, Messed Up went to Barrett Realty on Murfreesboro Road for a reaction. A man in the office told Messed Up to leave or the police would be called. We exited, unable to obtain a statement from the company regarding the recent developments.
As you may recall, Barrett Realty is the same company Messed Up investigated in a story earlier this month. At that time, new renters said Barrett Realty moved the previous tenant’s belongings to the front lawn for the city to pick up. After Messed Up got involved the city cited the agency, and Barrett Realty removed the furniture.
They say possession is nine-tenth of the law. They also say “Finder’s Keepers, Losers Weepers.”
Both sayings are accurate in this story.
On one end, you have two sisters more than a 100-years-old seeking to reclaim priceless family heirlooms.
On the other end of the story you have an amateur genealogist who owns the Perry County house where the women were born, who now has possession of the artifacts the older women want back.
Lily Thomas Boyd is 103. Her little sister, Juanita Thomas, is 101.
The centenarians now live in north Nashville, in a home that is full of photographs and history.
Of 11 children born to George and Florence Thomas, only Lily and Juanita are still alive.
The family was born and raised in Linden, Tennessee.
Over the years, family members moved away. Some became teachers. Others became politicians.
In the meantime, county records indicate that Rachel Szuliman bought the family homestead.
By phone, Szuliman told Messed Up the house was a disaster, abandoned for decades and left open to transients.
Szuliman and her husband restored the house to pristine condition.
In doing so they encountered artifacts belonging to the Thomas family.
She found church records from the 1890’s and slave records from the 1860’s. She found a biographical sketch written by the women’s father, George Thomas, in 1867. Szuliman also found a bible that Lily and Juanita say is more than 125 years old and has great sentimental value to the family.
Szuliman is blunt when she discusses the matter.
Much more on that in a moment, but in a nutshell Szuliman says she has given the sisters several items and made others available to them online or at her home.
Szuliman questions why the women and or their family never came to look for these priceless possessions in all the years the house was there, prior to her taking possession.
Back to the sisters — The tiny women, a combined 204 years of age, easily fit on the small sofa. They begin to reminisce and explain what the items and family mean to them.
Though younger by two years, Juanita is not as verbal and allows Lily to do most of the talking.
The former minister’s wife has a remarkably vivid memory.
When I ask her how old she is she smiles, saying, “I am very young. I will be 104 years old in three weeks.”
I laugh and listen to the super-senior who tells me she was born on March 30, 1906 at 2 a.m. in the morning in Linden, Tennessee.
“There are different things we treasured, that got misplaced somehow when we left Linden,” Lily says.
Before I can ask her another question, Lily launches into another story, this one about her grandfather with the bright blue eyes.
“My father’s father was Dr. Cole,” she said. “He was doctor for the king in England. When he didn’t bow to the king, he had to slip out [of the country] and come to America. That was 1842.”
I try and ask her what the letters and bible mean to her.
“I would treasure them forever and pass them on down,” she said. “They would be passed on down through the Thomas family.”
I ask how old the bible is.
“It’s at least from 1842,” she said. “I’m not sure how old before then.”
Lily tells me that her mother, Florence, was a church worker and in the 1920’s she organized women to vote.
“My mom got them together in Perry County and carried them to the polls to vote,” she said with great assurance.
“My older brother was a lawyer. He was a great politician. He didn’t miss any conventions. He was a Republican. In my family we had many, many ancestors in the Civil War.”
I try and get her back on track about the heirlooms she would like returned.
“I am just shocked at the woman. Anytime we went to Linden we stopped by, she gave us a few things, but not everything.”
“What would you say to her right now?” I ask.
Her eyes brighten and she leans forward on the couch. “If I could talk to her, what would I say? I am shocked and surprised you had these things, belonging to my great ancestors on my dad’s side and to keep that bible, and it is treasured in our family all through the years. To think you kept it all these years I am shocked. She should give it to me. I think she is a good Christian woman, and why she is keeping it I don’t know, and it hurts me and she won’t give it to the family. It doesn’t mean anything to her whatsoever.”
“What does it mean to you?” I ask.
“It means everything to us. It is history and carries us back through life and up to the present. I can’t express how much it would mean. I couldn’t express that in words what it would mean to pass it on down.”
Like every story, there are two sides. There are two sides to this story as well.
I speak with Mrs. Szuliman by phone for a long time. She is candid in her remarks when I tell her what Lily and Juanita have to say.
On March 5, 2010 Szuliman tells me the following:
“It [the items] had been in the house for 30 years. I worked and went through all the trash. The house was abandoned. The floors had collapsed. The front door wouldn’t close. Neighbors report people coming in and going out. There were vagrants that came and went and took things for 30 years. I am not willing to go through the whole process and give them back the things they could have gotten themselves. I bought the house 10 years ago. [County records show the house was purchased in 1993.] What was in the house was exposed to anyone who wanted anything for 30 years prior to that. Now they want it back.”
When I ask her why they want it back now, Szuliman says, “Why? Because they found out it was there. They had been searching for the bible for years and never looked for it.”
“Were they too lazy to look through the trash?”
“The house was in total disrepair. The city wanted to condemn the house. It is a piece of history for the neighborhood. We fought for [the house.] My husband worked on the house. He was out there building homes in the area, two weeks after heart surgery. The windows were knocked out, the floor collapsed. It was so full of trash, you wouldn’t believe it.”
“After we worked on it, we had to jack the rooms up. We had to jack them up. We are old house-people. These are part of the history of Perry County.”
I tell her how important the documents seem to be to the women.
Szuliman replies, “I wanted to save the important documents of the family. I am not willing to give them to any one person. I want them shared with the whole family, which is why I put them on the Internet.”
She continued, “If I give them to one person, guess what, they won’t share them. The people pushing for this won’t share. There are several grand children. The one wanting this won’t tell the others about their heritage.”
Szuliman tells me that Lily is the one pushing this.
“I live in her uncle’s house. We re-did it. We wanted the family to come back and feel at home. I’m now on the outs with them.”
“After I did all this work, and now they have this attitude. I rescued them. The city wanted to burn this house. They burned the house two doors up.”
I ask her if the material is valuable.
“I don’t think so,” she replies. “I think they just wanted to know where it was. If a building sits for 30 years and nobody looks for the family bible in all that time, what does that tell you? It tells you they are too lazy. They want someone else to look through the trash and reap the benefits. It doesn’t work that way. This house was open 30 years. We bought it, and it was so bad we couldn’t tell there was a house. It was so overgrown in front, took four months to get through and dig it out.
“How did you find the artifacts?” I ask.
“By working and by luck,” she says. “I went through everything. I threw away garbage. I saved what was savable. They are giving me a terrible struggle on this and I think, where are they coming from?
“I bought it 10 years ago. It sat for 30 years before that. Why didn’t they go through and look in all that time? I think they want something for nothing. That is my opinion. They are happy they found it, now they think they can claim it. They cannot. They can’t say that is mine. Maybe they will take part of the foundation of the house. I am willing to share with the family. They can come to my house, anyone or everyone, but if they want to take it with them, well that is not the way I work. [The house] was condemned. All these documents would have been burned without me. They don’t appreciate that. They just want their hands on it.”
A conservator for the sisters says that the law is on Szuliman’s side since she legally purchased the house and all the contents inside.
The wall at the Nashville National Cemetery is finally being repaired after it was destroyed in two separate auto wrecks in the summer of 2009.
Kim Mahone’s grandparents are buried in a grave site next to the wall. She felt that the garbage, debris, rock and crime tape left at the crash site were disrespectful to her grandparent’s memory.
Mahone called Messed Up and we called the cemetery’s director, Paul Martin, who agreed.
The problem was allocation of funds to do the job.
We stayed on the issue and as of Tuesday, March 9, 2010, it looks like there is resolution.
Martin said work crews started fixing the wall, and it should be done by the end of the month.
“Of course we care about what happens in the cemetery and how it affects the next of kin of our soldiers,” Martin told Messed Up by phone.
He added, “We know the entire wall needs to be replaced but we wanted to fix this section first.”
“We hope everyone is satisfied with what we are doing, and this will resolve the issue. We apologize for the length of time it has taken to get there, but now, we hope all are pleased.”
Martin told Messed Up the rest of the cemetery wall will be fixed in 2011.
by
Messed Up has tried repeatedly to get someone, anyone from American Shingle on the phone.
All Star Roofing owner Steve Morgan saw the story and contacted his friends in the roofing business. He called ABC Roofing and the good people at the Home Depot. 
Rachel Sneed is coming up on 72 years of age and she has not been in good health. With lip quivering and emotions super charged she thanks the roofers and Channel 2 for her good fortune, but she also has caustic words for the people of American Shingle.
A White’s Creek landowner says a nearby construction site is causing his parking lot to fill with mud after it rains.
City Councilman Walter Hunt also comes to the location at the request of That Is Messed Up.
It’s been more than 100 days since the flood and Middle Tennesseans everywhere still feel the pain.
Tom Bruce has lived in the community for six years.
“Hey, we got to get through,” the woman shouts. “What is on the other side of the truck?” she hollers.
If you’ve been to Waldron Road in LaVergne recently you know what confusion looks like.
“I don’t understand why barrels are placed like they are and the work is much further down the road and this has been cordoned off for three weeks,” he said. “Why have a 50 foot bottle neck, instead of a 1,000 foot bottle neck all the way down the road.”
Turner says she has been dealing with the Atlanta Roofing Co. since April 15. She says she’s had a blue tarp spread across her roof for months now.
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After a close call between a train and a school bus in Sumner County, residents demanded action.
She then contacted That Is Messed Up.
Lynch said the construction material exceeds the weight limitations for a 96 gallon container. He also said the haulers removed the Barrett cans because citizens complained about the way they looked. Lynch said the company is abusing the city service, and that his agency picked up all the city owned garbage receptacles at the 3 Barrett addresses we visited. Lynch also said Public Works mailed a letter of violation for each address to the realty company. 
On one end, you have two sisters more than a 100-years-old seeking to reclaim priceless family heirlooms. 
“It’s at least from 1842,” she said. “I’m not sure how old before then.”
Szuliman replies, “I wanted to save the important documents of the family. I am not willing to give them to any one person. I want them shared with the whole family, which is why I put them on the Internet.”
He added, “We know the entire wall needs to be replaced but we wanted to fix this section first.”
