By Troy Torres
(Tumon, Guam) Joseph Guevara, the former permits administrator at the Department of Public Works whose official actions favored and enriched he and his wife, real estate agent and democratic senatorial candidate Janine Guevara, also used his power to have the taxpayers pave part of the driveway to his million-dollar home in Ipan.
In 2017, former Gov. Eddie Calvo and the mayors of Guam relaunched the Islandwide Pavement Resurfacing Project. The contractor was Hawaiian Rock Products. The funding came from an increase in the liquid fuel tax, which translated into higher prices at the gas pump.
The first project involved $3.2 million in pavement of one village street for each village. Out of all the broken roads in Talofofo, the one chosen for repair was in a more-affluent neighborhood in Ipan - South Paulino Heights.
That's also the road, where Joe and Janine Guevara live. Their estimated-million-dollar home has an ocean view, a pool, and a basketball court.
As if it weren't enough that their road was chosen for this project, their driveway also is paved, and part of that pavement was done through the government resurfacing project that you and all of Guam's motorists funded through higher gas prices.
According to two of the Guevaras's neighbors, Mr. Guevara was seen and heard instructing the contractor's crew to pour asphalt from the public easement onto his private driveway during the resurfacing of the road in early 2019. DPW deputy director Jesse John Garcia said the planning for this project occurred in the previous administration and that the agency had yet to check the execution of this task order. It is something they will look into, now that it has been brought to their attention.
While the building permit for this project was executed by then-DPW director Glenn Leon Guerrero and not by Mr. Guevara, non-public construction projects by Hawaiian Rock Products needing permitting were coursed through Mr. Guevara's office, placing the contractor in a bind.
Kandit has previously reported on the Guevaras's abuse of their positions to favor developments by contractors that would later be listed and sold by Ms. Guevara.
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