Dolan Pays Up
Spanish Peaks Contractor Protest Yields Quick Results
Proving the power of the threat of bad publicity, a Bozeman contractor gets paid after picketing a Big Sky development.
By Jonathan Weber, 8-08-09
Chris Evans, owner of a small finish carpentry business in Bozeman, was mad as hell and decided not to take it anymore.
Last fall, he’d done a big chunk of work for Jim Dolan, owner of the troubled Spanish Peaks development near Big Sky. It was a rush job, trying to finish some condos that Dolan was building on property he owned at the neighboring Yellowstone Club. Evans hired extra crew to get the job done.
And then Dolan didn’t pay.
Evans says he was owed about $20,000. His calls to Dolan’s Voyager Construction company were met first with promises, and then with nothing. “It just about ruined us,” he said. Other contractors were in a similar predicament.
So last Thursday, some nine months after his invoice was due, Evans and his wife made some signs, called around to Montana Paint and some other contractors who had been similarly stiffed, drove to the Spanish Peaks entrance, and set up a picket. His plan was to stay all weekend -anyone going to Spanish Peaks or the Yellowstone Club would pass the spot, and the protest was timed to coincide with a big family weekend at the Yellowstone Club.
After just a few minutes, Spanish Peaks security showed up, and then the Sheriff, who agreed Evans was within his rights. A little later, it started to rain, and they went back down to the pizza place in town center - and then got a call from a Voyager manager who wanted to know his bank account information so he could wire the money.
“They were falling all over themselves” to make sure he got paid and wouldn’t show up over the weekend, Evans said. Sure enough, on Friday morning he received payment in full, with interest. He said Montana Paint also got paid.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Evans said Friday.
Dolan did not return a call seeking comment.
The Club at Spanish Peaks, a luxury development that opened in 2004, is in deep financial trouble, and work on the main lodge has ground to a halt. For Dolan, a close associate of former Yellowstone Club owner Tim Blixseth and heir to a Pittsburgh family fortune, this is likely just the beginning of the battles with unpaid contractors.
[End of article]hey chris,,,
good for you. im glad you got paid in full. i am in the trades as well and have an unpaid bill. maybe i should use the same tactic. a little PR campaign in front of their 400$ per night B and B and maybe ill get paid.
Listen up, kids! This is how you get to be fantastically rich like the Big Sky elite: Screw other people, any way you can imagine, 24/7!
Comment By bearbait, 8-10-09The right to assemble, the right to free speech, both were upheld by local law enforcement. Those guys who wrote the Constitution knew what the hell they were doing. And so did the amenders.
Comment By wapitidropiti, 8-10-09Great job Chris! Make the system work. It can be done if you think it thru.
Comment By bigirishnova, 8-11-09my point was, once a cheater, always a cheater!
Comment By Sharkbait, 8-11-09Glad to see someone had brass balls to stand up for right and wrong! Small contractors like mentioned above are at risk when invoices are not paid. I have seen a number a projects from this contractor and it is clear he is very reasonable and most of all a very talented craftsman. Glad to see your effort paid off and keep up the great work!
Comment By Dave D, 8-11-09Right on Sharky, could anyone imagine doing this 18 months ago. The black suburbans would have arrived with veiled threats of lawsuits for slander and libel.
This article was printed from www.newwest.net at the following URL: http://www.newwest.net/city/article/spanish_peaks_protest_yields_quick_results/C396/L396/