Paul Bass Photo
Greg McLaurin stopped at Goffe Street Tuesday morning because he didn’t want to cuss. He wanted a calm spot to consider a solution rather than escalating a conflict he had on the job.
McLaurin, a 63-year-old carpenter, would have preferred being in Meriden. He spent weeks remodeling a basement there for a 30-something couple who bought a new home. He completed the framing, the sheetrocking. He put in the dropped ceiling. He created a space for a fireplace and TV; he hadn’t yet filled in the stonework.
But for weeks he and they have been arguing over at least $1,500 he said they were supposed to have paid him by now.
McLaurin had driven from his home at the Rockview development to meet someone downtown who he said had promised to lend him money to tide him over. The person didn’t show.
Rather than return home and fume indoors, he decided to stop at the County Street end of the park to gather his thoughts outdoors.
“I just came to the park to try to get my mind clicking and figure out how I’m gonna get through this day,” McLaurin said during a conversation on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program. “They playing games. So I’m trying to figure out how can I handle this without getting disrespectful. I’m just really trying to just calm myself down before I speak to these people.”
A person whose basement he previously remodeled had referred McLaurin to the Meriden couple. He began work after Christmas, he said.
At first he had some laborers helping him. Then, he said, the homebuyers gave him only half of the up-front half they’d agreed to, so he couldn’t pay his colleagues. He continued doing the job on his own.
More arguments ensued over promised payments, he said. Now instead of talking, they’re texting, he said. He’s not pleased.
“I really want to have that conversation. I don’t want to text,” he said.
“They keep going back and forth. These kids they text me.
“They 30 years old! They’re young, and they bought a brand new house. And you know, I was trying to be lenient with them and trying to be a blessing. And it turned out they’re a nightmare to me.”
McLaurin said he has worked as a carpenter for 40 years, when the unemployment office on Olive Street sent him to the CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act). He found he liked working with wood. “Out of all the dudes I was in the CETA program with, there’s only like two or three of us that stuck with it.” In between his jobs in New Haven, family members regularly call him down to North Carolina and Pittsburgh for remodeling homes.
Over those four decades, he has never before had to pursue an unpaid bill in small claims court, McLaurin said. (“I had the chance to take an old lady to court, but I didn’t want to. I painted her whole house. As soon as I got finished, she said she didn’t like the color. She wanted me to change the color. I just let it go.”) He’s hoping this won’t be the first time. He’s hoping he and the young Meriden couple work it out.
McLaurin declined to give the reporter the name and contact number for the Meriden couple. He’s still hoping he and they can find a way to work it out. Next move: Come up with another text message to send. He figured they won’t pick up the phone if he tries calling.
Click on the video to watch the full conversation with Greg McLaurin on the“Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.
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Click here and see below for previous“Word on the Street” episodes and write-ups.
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