NEENAN Feb13(2)

Vern Thornton died in Illi-nois four years ago at age 73when a tractor (not the Case)rolled over on him. He left theCase to Steve, now 55, in hiswill.It took a couple of years be-

fore Thornton put together themoney and the time to fetchthe loader from ThorntonHeights. He and a son took atruck there, hitched up the10,000-pound machine andtrailer and started the driveback.It was not as easy as it

sounds.“We had quite a white-

knuckle trip back,” Thorntonsaid. “Peeled the tread off thetrailer tires at one point. Hadto stop a couple of times.”But they made it, and Thorn-

ton finally got his turn at thecontrols.“I drove it off the trailer at

«FROM 15A the house and drove it aroundthere just a very, very littlebefore the city said, ‘Uh-uh,you can’t do that in yourneighborhood,’ ” Thorntonsaid. “So I drove it back on thetrailer, and that was it.”The Case needed work—

and he needed a nonresiden-tial spot to park it — so Thorn-ton took the machine to ahose-repair company where afriend works in the 5100 blockof East 48th Avenue. It neverreally occurred to him thatsomeone might steal it, so heleft it on the trailer. For a year,there it sat.Until New Year’s Day. That

day, the crawler, and the trail-er, disappeared.Denver Police Lt. Matt Mur-

ray said the investigation hasturned up no leads. A seconddozer was taken at about thesame time from the same partof the city, but it was aban-doned in Adams County a

short time later and is notthought related.“The investigation is now

considered inactive,” Murraysaid. “We don’t have any infor-mation on it.”Thornton works in the up-

holstery shop at the RegionalTransportation District’s facil-ity off 31st Street in Denver. Hewears a work shirt with hisfather’s name above the pock-et and sews new covers for theseats on buses and light-railcars — a skill he learned fromhis grandmother back in Illi-nois.Thornton has passed out

fliers throughout RTDwithphotos of the loader.“I’m just hoping that maybe

one of the drivers will see itwhile they are out,” Thorntonsaid. So far, nothing.He had hoped to clean the

Case up and eventually use itto develop a little property onhis own after he retires from

RTD in a few years. But afterhe was first offered $6,000 andthen $12,000 for it and turnedthe money down, he realizedhe really just wanted to keepthe loader around, even if henever used it.Thornton mostly blames

himself for the loss.“If I had just taken it off the

trailer, it would never havegone anywhere,” he said.And if he got a chance to say

one thing to the thief, it wouldbe: “I’d sure love to have itback. I don’t think I can re-place it in any way.”

If you have information on themissing crawler loader, pleasecall Denver police at 720-913-7867.

Chuck Murphy: 303-954-1829,cmurphy@denverpost.com,Twitter.com/cmurphydenpost orFacebook.com/cmurphydenpost

Officials with the state De-partment of Public Health andEnvironment say they took theunusual step of requesting anoutside review in mid-Decem-ber because the engineer of re-cord,GaryHowell , alsoworkedon Neenan-designed and -builtschools found to have structur-al defects.Despite the outside review’s

alarming language, a localbuilding official and a structur-al engineer with no connectionto theGranbyproject describedthe column issue as relativelyminor.Still, scrutiny from another

state agency and the hasty re-pairs pose another challengefor Fort Collins-based Neenan,which is standing behind itswork and reviewing dozens ofbuilding designs as it seeks torestore an image tarnished byits school-construction prob-lems.The design-build firm says it

has completed health-carebuildings totaling more than 2million square feet in the past20 years, including at least eightprojects in Colorado.Kremmling Memorial

spokesman Eric Murray de-clined tomake district chief ex-ecutive Bill Widener availablefor an interview.“It’s remedied. It’s done,”

Murray said. “There is nothingto talk about, that’s all.We havebeen deemed absolutely safe.”The Granby project is the re-

sult of a more than decade-oldeffort to expand health care forGrand County’s 15,000 resi-dents.Thehospital district financed

it with between $23 million and$24 million in revenue bondsand $1.5 million in state grants.At a Nov. 12, 2010, ground-

breaking, hospital-districtboard president KentWhitmercalled it “a total win-win.”A littlemore than a year later,

Robert Sontag, life-safety codemanager with the state healthdepartment, contacted the dis-trict’s project manager to ask

«FROM 1A questions about the structuralengineering.Department officials had

been following a series of Den-ver Post articles and noticedthat Howell, the project engi-neer, had designed a Meekerschool that had serious flaws,Sontag said.Sontag said the owner’s rep-

resentative, Todd Ficken, ex-plained that he already hadmade changes to design as-sumptions after discovering is-sues that bore similarities tothose in Neenan schools.Sontag said he pressed for a

full outside review.“We said as long as there is an

arm’s-length review ... and thelocal building department iswilling to sign off on it, then wecanmove forward,” Sontag said.Andy Boian, a spokesman for

Neenan, said a review alreadyhad been scheduled because allof Howell’s work at Neenan isbeing scrutinized.Boian declined to say how

many other health-care proj-ects Howell had engineered.Howell was hired in late 2007and fired in November afterstate regulators opened an in-vestigation into his work.OnDec. 28, Denver structural

engineerMartino&Luth deliv-ered its findings. Most items

were minor, but the most seri-ous concerns centered on twocolumns the review foundwereoverstressed by 8 percent and12 percent, respectively.“Weare classifying this struc-

tural issue as major and itshould be remedied as soon aspossible,” it said.Howell disagrees with some

aspects of the review and de-scribed the suggested fixes asvery minor, said the engineer’slawyer, Bryan Kuhn.HaroldHowland, building of-

ficial with the town of WinterPark, which oversees construc-tion in Granby, said his depart-ment did not find problemswith the columns.“Some engineers are more

conservative than others andover-engineer things,” he said.“I don’t think the building wasever in trouble at all.”Bob Hunnes, past president

of the Structural Engineers As-sociation of Colorado, said it’sreasonable to call the repair aminor reinforcement.“These are really minor is-

sues in the context of the largerdesign deficiencies that havebeen reported on otherNeenanprojects,” he said.Neither the hospital district

nor Neenan, however, chal-lenged the findings. Neenan

agreed to pay for the fixes.The health department did

not require the review as a con-dition for licensure or requirerepairs before the grand open-ing Jan. 1, said Nancy McDon-ald, director of theHealth Facil-ities and Emergency MedicalServices Division.She said local building offi-

cials and the third-party engi-neer had declared the buildingsafe, and the repair timelinewas “rigorous.”By then, the building already

had passed the department’shealth code and life-safety in-spections, which cover itemssuch as corridor width and firealarms.The health department’s du-

ties include plan review. ButMcDonald said that would nothave caught the issues flaggedin the third-party review.“We authenticate that a li-

censed engineer has signed offon design calculations and as-sumptions, but we don’t repeatthe work,” she said.The repair job, which includ-

ed installing steel plates,wrapped up in about 10 days,Boian said. He said it neversnowed, so the snow-removalplan was never put into action.After the columns were

strengthened, another engi-neering firm was brought in toinspect the fix — all onNeenan’s dime.In a Dec. 21 letter, Neenan

presidentRandyMyers assuredWidener the company “hasweatheredmuch tougher finan-cial situations.”He repeated the message he

has shared with clients acrossColorado and the country:Neenan is taking responsibilityfor itsmistakes and taking stepsto prevent future ones.Myers wrote: “It it gratifying

to see that so many of our cli-ents, partners and fellow com-munity members recognizethat we are working hard to beaccountable and transparentduring these difficult times.”

Eric Gorski: 303-954-1971,egorski@denverpost.com

The Neenan-built Granbymedical center was reviewed by an outside firm for structural problems. Themost serious concernsdiscovered were two overstressed columns in the building, which Neenan paid to fix. Photos by Joe Amon, The Denver Post

NEENAN: Firm stands by its buildings

Dr.MeghanMont looks at Julie Broady at the Granbymedicalcenter last week. Some experts disagree on whether the issuefound at the facility was a “major” structural problem.

MURPHY: Police turn up no leads in theft of crawler

were damaged by fire, policesaid.Sunday’s clashes erupted af-

termore than 100,000protest-ersmarched to the parliamentto rally against the drasticcuts, which will ax one in fivecivil-service jobs and slashthe minimum wage by morethan a fifth.At least 45 businesses were

damaged by fire, includingseveral historic buildings,movie theaters, banks and acafeteria, in the worst riotdamage in Athens in years.Fifty police officers were in-jured, and at least 70 protest-ers were hospitalized. Sixty-seven suspected rioters werearrested and another 70 de-tained.PrimeMinister Lucas Papa-

demos urged calm.“Vandalism anddestruction

have no place in a democracyand will not be tolerated,” Pa-pademos told Parliament justbefore the vote.Since May 2010, Greece has

survived on a $145 billion bail-out from its European part-ners and the InternationalMonetary Fund. When thatproved insufficient, the newrescue packagewas approved.The deal, which has not yetbeen finalized, will be com-bined with a massive bond-swap deal to write off half thecountry’s privately held debt.But for both deals tomateri-

alize, Greece had to convinceits deeply skeptical creditorsthat it has the will to imple-ment spending cuts and pub-lic-sector reforms that willend years of fiscal excess andtame gaping budget deficits.As protests raged Sunday,

demonstrators set bonfires infront of parliament, and doz-ens of riot police formed linesto keep them from making arun on the building.Security forces fired dozens

of tear-gas volleys at rioters,who attacked them with fire-bombs and chunks of marblebroken off the fronts of luxuryhotels, banks and departmentstores.Clouds of tear gas drifted

across the square, andmany inthe crowd wore gas masks orhad their faces covered, whileothers carriedGreek flags andbanners. Masked rioters alsoattacked a police station withgasoline bombs and stones.

«FROM 1A A three-story building wasconsumed by flames as fire-fighters struggled to dousethe blaze. Streetswere strewnwith stones, smashed glassand burnt wreckage, whileterrified passers-by soughtrefuge in hotel lounges andcafeterias.Scores of bat-wielding

youths smashed property atwill for several hours, leavingbroken traffic lights hangingfrom poles, and chairs and ta-bles from looted coffee shopsdumped on the street. Ambu-lances weaved through nar-row backstreets to ferry theinjured to hospitals, dodgingburning trash bins and therunning battles between riot-ers and police.“I’ve had it! I can’t take it

anymore. There’s no point inliving in this country any-more,” said a distraught shopowner walking through hissmashed and looted opticianstore.Athens Mayor Giorgos

Kaminis said rioters tried tostorm the city-hall buildingbut were repelled.“Once again, the city is be-

ing used as a lever to try to de-stabilize the country,” he said.In parliament, FinanceMin-

ister EvangelosVenizelos saidthe new austerity measureswere vital to the country’seconomic survival.“The question is notwheth-

er some salaries and pensionswill be curtailed but whetherwe will be able to pay eventhese reducedwages and pen-sions,” he told lawmakers be-fore the vote. “When youhaveto choose between bad andworse, you will pick what isbad to avoid what is worse.”The new cutbacks, which

follow two years of harsh in-come losses and tax hikesamid a deep recession and re-cord-high unemployment,have been demanded byGreece’s bailout creditors inreturn for a new batch of vitalrescue loans.Greece’s eurozone partners,

meanwhile, kept up the pres-sure for real reform.German Finance Minister

Wolfgang Schaeuble wasquoted as telling the Welt amSonntag newspaper Sundaythat Greece “cannot be a bot-tomless pit.”

GREECE:One in fivecivil jobs to be cut;minimumwage falls

Gassman, Phyllis L. HoranGraham, Mary C. Archdiocese

Today’s Notices

GASSMAN, PHYLLIS L., 85, ofDenver. Preceded in death by

her husband Fritz Gassman. Motherof Greg (Lisa) Gassman. Grandmoth-er of Chris, Matt & Trisha. RosaryMonday 7pm, Horan & McConatyFamily Chapel, 3101 S. WadsworthBlvd. Funeral Mass Tuesday 10am,Notre Dame Catholic Church, 2190S. Sheridan Blvd. Interment, MountOlivet Cemetery. Please share con-dolences at HoranCares.com.

GASSMAN

2 Plots Chapel Hill Masonic Gardens.

Make an offer. (303)795-9877

2 Plots, loc. Olinger Chapel Hill, loc S. Colo. Blvd. Value $3995 ea.

Sell 2 for $7000 + trans- fer fee. 303-470-6617.

2 PRIME LOTS IN CROWN HILL CEME-

TARY. Make offer. (719)372-9315

CROWN HILL 2 side x side plots, loc on

front row near Wads-worth & office, blk 3, lot 25, sec. 3 & 4. $1700 ea.

or both for $3000. (720)220-1140

Crown Hill, Block 69, Lot 69, Unit A, Section 1.

$4450/ obo. 970-213-2081

Zion at Chapel Hill Cemetery Lot 25C, Spaces 3 & 4. $7500

(303)472-1615

08384866

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Golden Cemetery, 4 plots, City section, blk

93, lot 4. $1000 ea. Buyer pays Perpetual care

fee. (970)484-0031

Highland Cemetaries, Garden of Atonement, 2 side x side plots w/1 vault, selling for $4500. Will pay transfer fee. Call Ann, 303-534-5100

OLINGER CHAPEL HILL MEMORIAL GARDENS 2 side-by-side, lot #365-A #3 &#4, Garden of the Ma-sonic, Littleton, Co. $3595/ea (928)474-2584

Sunset Memorial Gar-dens in Greeley, 4 lots, lot #343, sect. B, Chris-

tus Gardens, can be sold group of 2 or 4, $500

per lot. Call (303) 600-8778 after 4pm.

GRAHAM, MARY C.,90, of Denver.Wife of the late Gene Graham.

Mother of John (Margaret) Graham,Mark (Nobuko) Graham, Chris (Tim)Henry and Gloria (Jim) Wright. Sis-ter of Mike Smaldone. Grandmotherof Paul, David, Erin, Colin, Stephen,Ben, Julie, Vincent and Crystal. Alsosurvived by twelve great-grandchil-dren. Recitation of the Rosary Mon-day, 7:00 PM., at the Archdiocese ofDenver Mortuary. Mass of ChristianBurial Tuesday, 10:00 AM., at Shrineof St. Anne Catholic Church (58th &Webster Sts.) Arvada. Entombment,Mount Olivet Cemetery.

GRAHAM

OBITUARY INFORMATION

Visit www.denverpost.com/placeanobit to place an obituary or memorial.

You may also call 303-954-2312 or e-mail funerals@

denverpost.com.

If sending by fax, the fax number is 303-954-2833.

Deadlines:3 pm Monday – Friday, for next day publication

12 noon Saturday for Sunday or Monday.

Holidays are subject to earlier deadlines. The obituary department is

closed Thanksgiving Day & Christmas Day.

To advertise cemetery lots, please call

303-825-2525.

18A» NEWS monday, february 13, 2012 B denverpost.com B the denver post 6