Bill Minnielli
A true character
Over the course of the next year I will tell several stories about Bill Minnielli. He was really a remarkable man and a character larger than life. At the end of the movie “The man who shot Liberty Valance”, the publisher tell the reporter “when the fact becomes legend you print the legend.” This is Bill Minnielli. The people who worked for him all have a favorite story and love telling them.
He started his business career after a getting large settlement from an accident he was in. The business was started in the late fifties or early sixties, and he died in 2002. When he died he was buried with his cell phone because his wife and kids figured he might want to call from the grave. I've learned that you either liked Bill or you didn't, I happen to be on the liking side but I still know plenty who didn't.
I first heard of Bill Minnielli when I was detailing rebar for Delta Steel while still in high school and this was the first of many stories I would hear about the man. This particular time Minnelli Construction had a job in Oxford, Ohio to lay a water line. Oxford was very environmentally conscience even back then. There was a grove of small pine trees that the city was paying Minnielli Construction extra to go around, and they did. The following Monday, the inspector went out to the project and every tree was missing. What was going though the inspectors mind at that time? He knew it was Bill but no proof.
Over the weekend some one dug up and removed every tree in this grove. Trees had mysteriously appeared in a subdivision that Bill owned. Of course Bill denied any involvement, he claimed the trees in his subdivision were there all along. The city still had to pay him for going around the trees, because they disappeared after he went around them. Now imagine being sixteen or seventeen and hearing this story from the inspector on the site, I never thought I would even like let alone trust a man like this. Over the years I did both.
Another time he was feuding with the city of Fairfield over the water bill to a trailer park he owned. The head of the water and sewer department thought he would play hard ball and threated to shut off the water. Bill had his mechanics to move a D-8 Caterpillar dozer to the meter pit and remove the tracks so no one could move it. If they tried to drag it off, it would damage the meter pit. When the mayor saw that it was going to cost the city more than then the water was worth to move the dozer, he had the head of the sewer and water department to negotiated with Bill and came to an amicable settlement. He found that it was easier dealing with Bill to ask instead of demanding.
In future blogs I'll talk about Bill and Fairfield School Superintendent, how Bill kept the city of Fairfield in court for several years, about his giving side, about Bill's son going to court, and about Fairfield's great explosion. There is so much to say about Bill Minnielli.
He started his business career after a getting large settlement from an accident he was in. The business was started in the late fifties or early sixties, and he died in 2002. When he died he was buried with his cell phone because his wife and kids figured he might want to call from the grave. I've learned that you either liked Bill or you didn't, I happen to be on the liking side but I still know plenty who didn't.
I first heard of Bill Minnielli when I was detailing rebar for Delta Steel while still in high school and this was the first of many stories I would hear about the man. This particular time Minnelli Construction had a job in Oxford, Ohio to lay a water line. Oxford was very environmentally conscience even back then. There was a grove of small pine trees that the city was paying Minnielli Construction extra to go around, and they did. The following Monday, the inspector went out to the project and every tree was missing. What was going though the inspectors mind at that time? He knew it was Bill but no proof.
Over the weekend some one dug up and removed every tree in this grove. Trees had mysteriously appeared in a subdivision that Bill owned. Of course Bill denied any involvement, he claimed the trees in his subdivision were there all along. The city still had to pay him for going around the trees, because they disappeared after he went around them. Now imagine being sixteen or seventeen and hearing this story from the inspector on the site, I never thought I would even like let alone trust a man like this. Over the years I did both.
Another time he was feuding with the city of Fairfield over the water bill to a trailer park he owned. The head of the water and sewer department thought he would play hard ball and threated to shut off the water. Bill had his mechanics to move a D-8 Caterpillar dozer to the meter pit and remove the tracks so no one could move it. If they tried to drag it off, it would damage the meter pit. When the mayor saw that it was going to cost the city more than then the water was worth to move the dozer, he had the head of the sewer and water department to negotiated with Bill and came to an amicable settlement. He found that it was easier dealing with Bill to ask instead of demanding.
In future blogs I'll talk about Bill and Fairfield School Superintendent, how Bill kept the city of Fairfield in court for several years, about his giving side, about Bill's son going to court, and about Fairfield's great explosion. There is so much to say about Bill Minnielli.
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