Snowplow payment dispute results in Lake in the Hills protest (with video)

LAKE IN THE HILLS – About 25 snowplow drivers took to Pyott Road on Thursday to protest a Lake in the Hills businessman they contend failed to pay them for work they did this winter.

Mike Danforth, an attorney who represents eight subcontractors, said KCG Management and Snow Plow Men Inc. owner Mark Krog owes more than $200,000 for work completed since November.

“They’re out all this money that they’ve already had to pay,” Danforth said. “Including wear and tear on their vehicles, gas and everything else, and they haven’t been paid. Or most of them haven’t been paid anything or some have them have been paid very little.”

The subcontractors carried signs denouncing Krog and demanding payment outside his shop in the 8700 block of Pyott Road. Among them was Tony Figueroa, the owner of Santa Fe Landscaping. Figueroa said he hasn’t received any of the $14,000 Krog owes him for the work he and his crew did this year.

“You struggle all winter long so you can make an honest living,” Figueroa said. “And he’s just taking the money.”

Krog, who said he has owned Snow Plow Men Inc. for three years, argued the subcontractors didn’t perform the work stipulated in their contract, damaged the sites they plowed and provided false insurance.

“We’re a company that goes out, does our job and gets paid,” Krog said. “But we can’t do that when the job was never completed.”