Elderly Palm Desert woman says contractor broke her irrigation system while installing new driveway

CBS Local 2 “Stands for You”.

We took a stand for an elderly Palm Desert woman who has complaints about a contractor who installed a new driveway at her house.

The woman says the installation damaged the irrigation system in her yard.

The new driveway is made of interlocking tiles at her home in Sun City.

While working on the project, the owner of the house says the contractor broke pipes that run under the driveway.

As a result, some plants in the back yard, and on the west side of the house went without water for days.

“To leave me without irrigation for most of my property, that is not a good thing,” said Miller.

79-year-old Sylvia Miller says she paid nine thousand dollars for the work, which was performed in February.

Miller says she had to replace three plants which died, and paid her gardener to repair the broken pipes.

She also says the contractor failed to leave behind extra tiles, and did not spray-wash the driveway as promised.

“We had a very good relationship during the first part of this, but it seems once the money was paid, that was it,” said Miller.

Miller says she mailed a letter to the contractor, Juan Rodriguez, owner of JRC Concrete Construction in Indio.

She says she mailed the letter after Rodriguez failed to return her repeated phone calls.

Still not getting the response she wanted, Miller called CBS Local 2, and asked us to get involved.

We contacted Rodriguez by phone to get his side of the story.

Rodriguez said he did not want to respond on camera, but said he would contact Miller and take care of her concerns.

“I don’t think he can undo the damage he has done to me. Even if he did make everything right, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, said Miller.

Rodriguez called Miller Wednesday and promised her he would “make things right”.

He says he didn’t return Miller’s earlier phone calls because he became preoccupied with “personal matters”.