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Woman asks Channel 11 for help after contractor no-shows for months

A Beaver County woman turned to Channel 11 for answers after a contractor she hired in November still hasn’t shown up to demolish her garage.

At 69 years old, Darlene Lampkin of Beaver Falls has her hands full. Her husband has bone cancer, with weekly chemo treatments. To make it worse, her garage collapsed.

Darlene says it’s an eyesore and a health hazard. She had to put up caution tape.

She showed Channel 11 the contract she signed in November with Unis Demolition out of Aliquippa. She paid in full: $2,000.

“It’s March and nothing has been done,” she said, noting she’s been calling the contractor for months and never getting a call back.

Channel 11’s Amy Marcinkiewicz called him and he called right back, promising a solution.

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“If she wants, I will give her her money back, her full $2,000,” said owner Ralph Unis. “If she wants to meet me tomorrow, all she has to do is sign a release and we can give her the money back.”

When Unis agreed to talk with Channel 11, Marcinkiewicz told him he was on speakerphone and Lampkin was listening to the entire conversation.

"I intended to do the work, but the weather hasn't cooperated," Unis said. "I told her once the weather would clear up, you know, some type of break, that we would get down there and do the job."

Lampkin was so upset she filed a civil complaint, and even though Unis promised to give her the money back Saturday, she’s skeptical.

“We will see,” she said.

Unis has made news before – in 2015, he was ordered to pay $120,000 in back taxes to Beaver County, and there was a lawsuit against his company in West Virginia for allegedly not completing work.