Don't do any work at this 'facility' - you may not get paid! The facility is SUPPOSEDLY operated by Melanie Ritter. However, her very offensive, dour husband appears to have all control over the facilities construction, maintenance and operation (obviously behind the scenes since he has NO equine skills). Last summer, Melanie's husband, Rawn Ritter, contracted my husband to construct their new arena in Grandview, after having seen another arena in the area that he constructed earlier in 2009. They may a verbal agreement for Mr. Ritter to pay for all materials at cost and to pay my husband a fee of $35 per hour for labor and heavy equipment. He also agreed to hire OUR two laborers at a rate of $10 per hour. A start date was established with a tentative completion time-frame of approximately 3-5 days. Delivery of materials was scheduled for the following week. Mr. Ritter was unable to meet the materials delivery truck so my husband had to meet them (which was not part of their agreement). The day before my husband was to start the arena, he received a call from Mr. Ritter stating that he didn't want to use our laborers and had found his own. My husband disagreed initially because he COULDN'T ascertain that the 'laborer' supplied by Mr. Ritter was skilled and capable of assisting during the initial stages of the construction (which involved lifting heavy pipe, welding, cutting and measurements). Mr. Ritter assured him that his laborer was skilled as he was an "out of work welder". The following day my husband was on the jobsite at 8 AM. The laborer Mr. Ritter hired never showed. My husband was only able to perform roughly 3 hours of work without assistance. He wasted an entire day. After discussing this issue with Mr. Ritter, he assured Danny that he'd found another "skilled laborer" and promised he would be there the second day. Danny went to the jobsite the next day and Mr. Ritter "dropped off" the helper. It was an under-aged worker, came with no gloves (to handle hot welded pipe), had no safety equipment, safety boots (wore tennis shoes) and had NO experience. Danny was only able to perform an additional 7 hours labor with this "helper". Again, another wasted day. That evening Danny contacted Mr. Ritter and told him that the 'laborer' was insufficient to perform the tasks necessary. He advised Mr. Ritter that he was wasting time 'waiting' for Mr. Ritter to provide the appropriate manpower and that he would only complete this project if allowed to use the laborers as initially agreed. Mr. Ritter refused and became enraged that Danny wouldn't allow him to seek another assistant. At that point, Danny was forced to resign from this project. He realized that Mr. Ritter was not going to agree to an amicable resolution to the labor issue. Danny told Mr. Ritter that he just needed to pay him the $350 that he was due and that he could find another contractor to complete the arena. Danny had already installed all the steel pole "uprights" around the entire arena. Mr. Ritter said that he'd not pay Danny "unless he completes the project as agreed". Mr. Ritter was cursing, offensive and threatening. Danny simply told him he would be receiving an invoice and hung up. No payment has been received to date.
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