Who's next?

Who's next?

Dear Editor, I would like to publicly express my sincere disgust with our city's leadership. I think everyone knows who these people are .... Just to fill the residents in on what type of people are running our city, I will tell you what happened to my residence. On Aug. 4, I woke up to a terrible smell coming from my basement. When I went down to investigate, I found 3 inches of sewer water covering the entire basement. I immediately called my insurance agent and was told to get a plumber to figure out where the water was coming from. After a few unsuccessful calls to the local plumbers, I decided to call the city's sewer department. they responded right away. When Larry Dickey arrived, he told me it was our sewer line behind the residence that had backed up. He also had the water draining before he came into my home, because they jetted the main line and cleared the blockage. I was told to get someone in to start cleaning and file a claim with the city's insurance company; "we will take care of this." In fact, I was told that it had just happened a few blocks away, and everything had been taken care of. After nearly three weeks of waiting, the city's insurance carrier ... denied the claim (big surprise; I am not the premium payer). So now I am stuck with over $10,000 in cleanup and replacement of flooring. I also had the home for sale and had a sale pending on Aug. 25. The buyer consequently backed out after the damage and I have had little activity since. The City Council will not even consider discussing this at a meeting; they feel they are not responsible for the damages. Not responsible? The city has a main sewer line that gets blocked, sewage travels through the home's sewer line and floods the basement, I could have not stopped if I had wanted too. It was not my home's plumbing. My insurance carrier will not cover damage because it came from the city's line. Now the city is facing another lawsuit. Who is the city going to run over next? If it were (the city manager's) home, would he have a city crew working overtime to clean up his house? I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else. Please call the city and let them know what you think; it could be your home this happens to next. Jeremy Bain McCook