Claim by Bruce HaugenTHE CITY OF
DUB TE MEMORANDUM
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TRACEY STECKLEIN
PARALEGAL
To: Mayor Roy D. Buol and
Members of the City Council
DATE: August 25, 2010
RE: Claim Against the City of Dubuque by Bruce Haugen
Claimant Date of Claim Date of Loss Nature of Claim
Bruce Haugen 08/24/10 Past few years Property Damage
This is a claim in which claimant states that the sidewalks, wall, porch support slabs and
part of the foundation of his property collapsed, allegedly caused by runoff from the
street to the west of his property at 1175 — 1193 Highland. Claimant alleges that these
streets were designed in a manner that directs the water runoff over claimant's property.
This claim has been referred to Public Entity Risk Services of Iowa, the agent for the Iowa
Communities Assurance Pool.
cc: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
John Klostermann, Street & Sewer Maintenance Supervisor
Gus Psihoyos, City Engineer
Bruce Haugen
OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY DUBUQUE, IOWA
SUITE 330, HARBOR VIEW PLACE, 300 MAIN STREET DUBUQUE, IA 52001 -6944
TELEPHONE (563) 583 -4113 / FAx (563) 583 -1040 / EMAIL tsteckle @cityofdubuque.org
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CLAIM AGAINST THE CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
This written report constitutes your claim against the City of Dubuque, Iowa. You
should complete this form in full and attachany additional information that
supports your claim.
The claim must be filed with the City Clerk at City Hall, 50 West 13 St.,.
Dubuque, IA 52001. It will then be referred to the appropriate department for
investigation and to the City Attorney's Office. Once that investigation is
completed, a report and recommendation will be submitted to the City Council.
You will be provided with a copy of that report and recommendation.
The final decision on all claims is made by the City Council. No employee of the
City of Dubuque has the authority to make any representation to you as to
whether your claim will or will not be paid.
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2. Address: - 2 3 e't c 7 ✓ !� r� L (
1. Name of Claimant:
3. Telephone Number C (, S 2 S' ` i c let s ` i L(o el 3 C
4. Date of Incident: Y.:. , e t 4 s 7 5 y
5. Time of Incident:
6. Location of Incident (Be specific):
7. Describe the accident or occurrence that caused injury or damage. (Give full
details upon which you base your claim. If a City employee was involved, give
the employee's name.) L r
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8. What were weather conditions like?
9. Give name and address of any witnesses:
10. Did police investigate? (If so, give names of officers.)
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11. Was anyone injured? (If so, give names, addresses, and extent of injuries).
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12. Was any damage done to property? (If so, describe property and the extent
of damages. Attach estimates of damages or describe basis for ascertaining
extent of damage.) (^ A
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13. What other damages do you claim, if any
. What amount do you claim from the City of Dubuque?
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14. Have you been compensated for any part or all of your claim by any
insurance company? (If so, give name and address of insurance company and
amount paid.)
16. Why do you claim the City / of Dubuque is responsible?
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17. Have you made any claim against anyone else for damages as a result of
this incident? (If yes, give name and address.)
18. If the answer to Question 17 is yes, have you received any payment from that
source, and if so, in what amount?
Dated this . ' -(
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City of Dubuque,
Please find enclosed an application for claim of damages to my property at 1175 &
1193 Highland place in Dubuque.
I have owned this property since the early 1960's and have not had any erosion or
settling problems until the city paved Dell and Avon streets to the west. What has
occurred since then is that on occasions of heavy rains the water runs down Avon, across
Dell and down over and around my building. This caused severe erosion and the sinking
and failure of the surrounding sidewalks, concrete porch decks and supports and the
failure of the front retaining wall and drain tile system. I hired a contractor to repair as
much of this damage as I could manage last summer at a cost of $24,500. I still have to
have the porch leveled and reattached to the front of the building from which it pulled
away when the foundation under the end pillar sank and pulled away. There is other work
such a repainting and decking repairs I need to do also but this is not related to the water
problem and so of course no claim will be made against the city for any of that.
I believe this is a fair and justified claim and I expect you will find it to be so. Please
contact me with any questions you might have.
Bruce Haugen
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To whom it may concern,
Having completed most of the job of restoring the water damage at 1175 -1195 Highland Place in
Dubuque it is my considered opinion that the vast majority if not all of the settling was caused by excessive
run off of groundwater sheeting down Avon ,crossing Dell and continuing over the inadequate curb on the
east edge of Dell and down over the rear parking area and rear lawn of the property. This undermined the
sidewalk leading to the rear of the structure as well as the rear concrete slab that supported the rear porch
causing it to sink and break up. Continuing mostly around the North side of the house water scoured out the
soil beneath the north sidewalk causing it and the North end of the concrete slab supporting the front porch
to sink ,break and pull away taking the North porch pillar support with it . This caused the front porch to sag
and pull away from the front wall of the structure. The tile drain system was undermined and caused to fail
by the same action and this contributed in the buildup of pressure behind the front stone retaining wall
eventually causing the wall to fail and fall onto the front sidewalk.
The repairs necessary to repair these damages and to prevent the recurrence of similar damages included;
1. Removal and replacement of rear sidewalk and the rear concrete slab supporting the back porch
2. installation of retaining wall and backfilling parking area to direct flow of water back off the property
3. Removal and replacement of sidewalk on North side of building
4. Removal and replacement of North support foundation for front porch.
5.removal and replacement of North end of slab under front porch.
6. Installation of new drain tile on North and East sides of structure.
7. Removal and installation of stone retaining wall on east side of property including concrete foundation
for wall and concrete steps & sidewalk through wall for access.
Total cost for work done so far, labor and materials, has come to $24,500 The owner has paid for this.
Work still to be done includes leveling of front porch and reattaching it to front of building. No estimate
of the cost of this work has been completed at this time.
(M.F. Custom Building
Monti Fernandez
563.672.3416
563.495.0976 cell
{ Remodeling • New Construction • Decks • Landscaping •-Designs)
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