Metropolitan-Splash-Patriot connection

After Hurricane Sandy the Village of Island Park hired Metropolitan Construction Group and its President, Kent Katter of Babylon, to act as building inspector and administrator for the Village — the same Kent Katter who is now part of Patriot Management Group — the company that won the bid to rebuild Village Hall.

Operation Splash is a 25-year-old volunteer community group. Rob Weltner is president of Operation SPLASH, and also a principal of VIP Splash Waterways Recovery Group, Inc., along with Katter and Michael McLean.

VIP Splash was founded July 24, 2013, according to state documents, and bid on Nassau county’s original $4 million waterways clean up contract on July 23, which it won. In all, four companies bid on the contract. The other three had extensive experience in cleanup after disasters. While VIP did not have a history of similar work, McLean and Katter did. The other principals of VIP SPLASH include Jim Ruocco of Freeport, Scott Bochner of Long Beach, who is a co-founder of Sludge Stoppers Task Force and also an Operation SPLASH member, Tommy Asher of Island Park, who is another Operation SPLASH member, Kim Weltner, Freeport’s purchasing agent and wife of the Operation SPLASH president, and Christopher Toften.

The County contract was for one year and by the time the job was done, VIP Splash was awarded an additional $8 million. They took out 16,000 yards of debris from the marshes, and raised over 2200 submerged boats, cars and docks.

Mayor Michael McGinty said Metropolitan was tasked with recreating a building department and the day-to-day administration of construction in Island Park after Sandy. They wrote the bid for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), which won the $40 million for a series of storm water; erosion and flood mitigation projects that will enhance flood protection for Island Park.