Community supports Pittsfield teacher after a bad experience with a contractor

PITTSFIELD, Maine (WABI) - After a bad experience with a contractor who worked on her home, school teacher Billie Jo Reed says she’s in awe of the support from the community.

“It was just emotional. It was very kind, generous, and I would be forever grateful,” Reed said.

It all started about a year ago when Reed needed work done on her roof. She says she found a contractor on Facebook.

“He owned his own company, and it said it was insured,” she said.

Reed said the contractor completed the work and she was so pleased, she asked him to do siding work her home.

That’s when the trouble began.

“He got the first side down and probably when he was working on the back side, a piece of siding from the top fell down” she said.

It eventually it all came crashing down.

Reed said she then found out he was not insured like he said. She sought out quotes from a new contractor to repair the damage and came in contact Joshua Lombard.

“My son had a lot of problems in school with speech and stuff like that. He is in kindergarten now, and he did two years of preschool, and she helped my son drastically,” Lombard said

Lombard knew he had to do something. He got in contact with his former employer JM Buildings who got in contact with another.

Within a day, the work was completed.

“We ended up peeling all of the siding back off the house and install an underlayment. He hadn’t put any underlayment under the sidings. We ended up weather proofing all of her windows he had installed,” James Alexander said.

Alexander, owner of New Edge, said he could not go to sleep at night charging her for the work.

“She does a lot for our younger generation. She is a school teacher in Pittsfield. She also has a handicap daughter, and so the money she had saved was everything she had pretty much, and I don’t think that school teachers get paid what they should,” Alexander said.

Reed said she’ll always remember kind people still exist but warns others they need to do research before hiring a contractor.

Lombard agrees.

“When you are looking for construction crews, do your research. Make sure they have all the paperwork, make sure they have all the insurances. A lot of companies will say they do, but they really don’t,” Lombard said.

“It not only protects the customers, but it protects us as contractors. Ask for references, all things that can prevent you from going through what Billie Jo had gone through,” Alexander said.

“You really can’t explain with words. It really shows the heartfelt of our community and that there are still good people in the world,” Reed said.

Copyright 2022 WABI. All rights reserved.