You have your Ten Commandments, but there’s an eleventh in Seymour.
Thou shalt never spell Katharine Matthies’ name incorrectly.
Yet a company hired to make signs for the town did just that — and now they’re being sued for breach of contract.
The error — spelling Matthies with one ‘t’ on a “Welcome to Seymour” sign — was one of many mistakes town officials said they caught after awarding a roughly $18,000 contract to “We Can Do That,” a sign company with Valley roots, to put up “Welcome” and “directional” signs throughout the Silvermine Industrial Park and a few spots elsewhere.
(Matthies, by the way, was a philanthropist in Seymour whose generosity benefited generations of Valley people and organizations).
In all, 16 signs were ordered from the company, using money from a state grant, but the company failed to correct and repost five signs, according to the town.
But the owners at “We Can Do That” contend the town actually owes them money, an assertion hotly contested by the First Selectman’s Office, where there is a telephone book-sized file on the company and the dispute.
The town said they made payments per the contract, and have copies of checks to prove it.
First Selectman Kurt Miller called the “We Can Do That” sign company’s job performance in Seymour “disgraceful,” and said the company delivered “directional” signs that were subpar.
“One of the signs had dents,” Miller said. “In the sign where they misspelled Matthies, they took it down to repair it, and when they brought it back there was a big scratch in it.”
“Directional” signs meant to point drivers toward businesses were placed in the wrong spots, Seymour officials allege. The signs pointed motorists in the wrong directions.
In all, the company did sloppy work, Miller said.
“There were issues that were just not acceptable, but it was OK to the company. We’re not going to sign off on work like that,” Miller said.
After a year of back-and-forth, Seymour filed a lawsuit July 11 against the company and the company’s bond company.
“We still have issues with the signs they put up,” Miller said. “They kept promising they would be fixed, kept promising, kept promising, kept promising, finally they passed the point the contract had to be completed.”
“We Can Do That” is owned by Donald and Carol Mastersanti of Oxford.
Carol Mastersanti told the Valley Indy town officials were impossible to satisfy, and that “We Can Do That” lived up to its end of the deal.
The mistakes were routine and minor, she said.
The company answered the town’s lawsuit with a document in which Donald Mastersanti claims he was “literally attacked” by the town’s “Economic Developer.”
The court documents are posted at the end of this story.
The person allegedly screamed at company officials.
That created “a very uncomfortable working environment,” according to Mastersanti.
Mastersanti said Seymour officials “took it upon themselves” to remove five directional signs from Silvermine Industrial Park.
Seymour officials said they had to take down the signs because the work was shoddy.
Mastersanti claims the town had no right to do that, because permits on the sign were in his name.
“I thought they were stolen,” he said.
Miller said the company has the signs, but never fixed them, nor returned them to the town.
The job was supposed to be completed in 2013.
“It was supposed to be done in a timely fashion, and that certainly was not the case,” Miller said.
Mastersanti submitted a court document showing the company’s bond company, ACSTAR Insurance Co., sided with “We Can Do It.”
Miller said the bond company is about as useless as the sign company.
The Town of Seymour isn’t the only entity that had a problem with “We Can Do That.”
The company was taken to small claims court in March by St. Augustine Church on Washington Avenue in Seymour.
In that case, the church was replacing damaged plexiglass that served as protection for the church’s 100-year-old stained glass windows.
The church said the job cost about $5,000, but claimed in court “We Can Do That” stopped showing up, never finished the job and offered an endless stream of excuses.
A judge ruled in favor of the church and ordered “We Can Do That” to pay St. Augustine $5,103.38.
Carol Mastersanti said the company has been in business for a long time and has a good track record.
