Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
A young couple approached the Monticello City Council recently with a request that the city accept a measure of financial responsibility for the damage caused to their home as a result of a pump station failure occasioned by a power outage.
Here’s the story that Jordon and Austin Reese told the Monticello City Council on Tuesday evening, June 7. The Reeses said their house on Creekside Court had been partially inundated on the night of March 22, when sewage water had begun seeping from their shower and tub drains about 9 p.m. and flooded their bathroom floor.
Unsure what to do, the couple called the Monticello Police Department and had their call transferred to the on-call utilities technician, who they said instructed them to call a plumber to verify the problem wasn’t an internal one.
While waiting for the plumber to arrive, the couple received advice from family, friends and others to remove the cleanout drain so as to allow the sewage to bypass into the yard. Which advice the couple followed and it helped to slow the flow.
By this point, however, the carpets in their master bedroom and closets were soaked and a rancid
smell filled the house.
The plumber, when he arrived about 10:30 p.m., ran his equipment through the lines and concluded that the problem wasn’t with the house’s system. This was about 1 a.m.
At which point the couple again called the city’s on-call technician, only this time the individual could not be reached. Instead, the technician ‘s supervisor showed up at the Reeses’ house near 2 a.m. and himself rechecked the house lines.
Finding these to be okay, he next went to the well in the center of the cul-de-sac and found that it was filled nearly to the top with gray water, which he reportedly said, “wasn’t part of a normal system operation.”
About then, it began to storm. The supervisor, however, assured them that he would do everything possible to get the system back online, which he eventually was able to do sometime in the early morning hours.
“He was very empathetic and apologetic regarding the difficulty of reaching the on-call technician,” the Reeses wrote in their letter to the council.
They said they had subsequently contacted City Manager Seth Lawless, who had explained that the system’s failure had been due to a Duke Energy power outage. Which mishap, he said, had been compounded by the lack of a backup generator at the site or an alarm mechanism to alert city personnel of the failure (an alarm has since been installed).
All told, the couple told the council that the entire affair had cost about $24,000 (inclusive of the plumber’s service, carpet cleanup, insulation and sheetrock replacement, etc.), of which amount their insurance policy had paid $5,000 and the city’s insurance provider, the Florida League of Cities, had paid $7,798.03 for the carpet cleaning.
But otherwise, the couple said, the League had determined that they weren’t entitled to any other reimbursement, as it found no negligence on the part of the city. Leaving them to pay the remainder of the cost out of pocket, they said.
City Attorney Bruce Leinback affirmed the League’s position. The League, he said, had found that the problem had been caused by a power failure and not negligence on the part of the city. Hence, the city was not legally liable, he said. Nor did it have the wherewithal to provide backup generators at all the stations, he explained.
Jordon Reese decried this stand. The city might not be legally obligated to redress their situation, but what about morally, she asked.
“It’s not fair that the city’s sewage backed up into our home and that we have to pay for it,” she said. “It’s not right just to put the blame on Duke Energy because of the outage. What happens the next time that there is a power outage?”
As new residents and homeowners in Monticello, they wanted to be supportive of the community and help it to grow and become a better place, they said. However, the city’s lack of support so far to alleviate their situation, stood to leave them with a bad taste in their mouth, Jordon said.
The council wasn’t without sympathy for the couple. Councilman Troy Avera, at least, suggested that the council hold an executive session to discuss the Reeses’ situation frankly and at length.
Leinback told the council that he would look into the possibility of the council holding an executive session on the particular issue. But he warned that it might not be possible, given the limitations placed on such sessions, which exclude the public and typically are restricted to lawsuits, contract negotiations and the like.
As the Reeses wait to see what the City votes to do, they state that they are still out of pocket around $11,000, not including the cost of the personal items, in the home, that were damaged and had to be replaced. They were also displaced from their home for about a month until all the necessary clean-up could be done, and it was deemed safe to even live inside the home again; which was a huge inconvenience with one young child and another one due in just a few months. However, they expressed one of their main concerns is the lack of initial response from the city’s on-call water/utilities employee who recommended they call a plumber, instead of accessing the scene to check for possible causes, from the city’s equipment.
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