Claim by J. Thomas ZaberTHE CITY OF
DUB
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TRACEY STECKLEIN
PARALEGAL
cc: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
Gus Psihoyos, City Engineer
J. Thomas Zaber
E MEMORANDUM
)0,
To: Mayor Roy D. Buol and
Members of the City Council
DATE: April 12, 2011
RE: Claim Against the City of Dubuque by J. Thomas Zaber
Claimant Date of Claim Date of Loss Nature of Claim
J. Thomas Zaber 04/07/11 03/11/11 Property Damage
This is a claim in which claimant alleges that while work was being performed on Locust
Street, a curb stop valve was broken and fell onto claimant's soil pipe, also breaking it,
causing water damage in the basement of claimant's property at 1005 Locust Street.
This claim has been referred to Public Entity Risk Services of Iowa, the agent for the Iowa
Communities Assurance Pool.
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
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 attach any 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 Attorneys 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.
1. Name of Claimant:
2. Address:
3. Telephon? Number
4. Date of Incident:
5. Time of Incident:
6. Location incident (Be spe c): r .
i4
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 me.)
AJ c� 'A A
/f//
O° A iV\
8. What were weather conditions like? (
9. Give nam :. and address of any witnesses:
S � sue'
/ - ?
'c: M v14
L
10. Did police ' vestigate? (If so, give nam s of officers.)
11. Wa anyone injured? (If so, give names, addresses, and extent of injuries).
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.
y ‘• 6 - )4)Q
13. WAat other damages do you claim, if any?
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.)
15. What amount do you claim from the City of Dubuque?
c;?
16iNlay do you claim t e City of Rubupye is responsible?
1 1,-*- +Z. 1. -r 4.-r„)
17. Have you made any claim against anyone else for damages as a result of
this incident? (If yes, give name and address.)
2'
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 L.. day of
(Print Name)
,20,/ .
A m
Fri
To: The Dubuque City Council
Specifics concerning claim made against The City of Dubuque
Signed April 6, 2011
RE: The Spectrum
1005 Locust St
Dubuque, IA 52001 -4702
At 3:30 A.M. in the morning in early February, I received a call from my tenant, Mary
Townsend. She said there was five inches of water on the floor in her lower level
apartment and it was rising.
I hurried downtown, calling my plumber on the way, and parked out front of the building.
As I got out of my car, I heard water gushing through the sewer at Locust and Tenth Sts.
I immediately called the police department and asked them to raise the water department
to shut off the main.
To make a long story short, when the surface was excavated, a large void was found
below the alley about 6' X 8' X 8' deep. The first item to be removed after the excavation
was the cement encrusted curb stop valve without its cast iron stem which extends to the
surface. The weight of the valve caused the valve with its concrete coat to drop down
through the void on to my soil pipe and break it also. Hand digging then cleared open the
remainder of the stand pipe which was found in two pieces. It was immediately clear to
me, and to the personnel on the site, the stem less valve was directly below the fiber optic
cable extending up to the library, and the valve was directly above the soil pipe, that the
valve fell directly on to the soil pipe and broke it. I then realized why the brick floor in
my basement had shown some moisture, not over the surface but in the brick, on a
number of occasions after the fiber optic lines had been installed. I looked closely at the
two pieces of the cast that had been broken off of the valve and it was obvious that the
mole had hit the cast iron stem and broken it half way to the surface and the lower break,
on the top of the valve, came from the pressure the mole had caused breaking the upper
part off of the valve. The moisture on the floor over the last several years had to have
been water slowly leaking from the valve as the result of this damage. The subsequent
failure was caused by the void having been formed from water leakage allowing the full
weight of the valve to be put on the smaller water lines. Thus the lines failed and fell
through the void on to the soil pipe.
I am handicapped, I could not carry the two broken pieces, however, the workers moved
them into my basement to keep so you can determine their condition and see for yourself
how it happened. To make matters worse, the camera in the soil pipe got caught, and
because it was so muddy, seeing the whole soil pipe was impossible on this first
excavation. Three days later the soil pipe backed up. When the camera was reinserted for
the second time, the last few feet of the soil pipe attached to the main had failed at the
main. This could not be seen through all of the saturated ground earlier, so it had to be
excavated again.
The main is approximately 10 — 12' from the rear of my building. The fiber optics, the
valve, and the soil pipe are only 3 — 4' behind the building. They are vertically in
elevations directly above one another
What is further exasperating is that I was not notified when the boring company came in
with their equipment to run the fiber optics the first time. I asked them why they were on
my property, as I was not notified, and why were there no flags or paint marks from Iowa
All Call to mark off the utilities. They acted as if it was none of my business. Gary
Kluesner, who works for Ed Tschiggffrie and owns the row house north of me is aware of
this and also was quite irritated at that time. The dampness in my brick floor was a clue,
and because I am not an engineer, I was not attuned to it.
I believe that it is the city's responsibility to pay these costs as the damage was initiated
when the fiber optic lines were bored up to the rear of the library.
I am attaching all of the receipts and estimates which I have received for repairs.
Note:
$21,627.65 — represents the total of attached invoices. However, the additional
materials needed for the drywall bid would approximate another $165.00. This
would complete the repairs. Thus, then there is a grand total of $21,777.65.
There were also lost several personal items:
A cell phone
A DVD player /recorder
Two speakers
A Canon EOS Rebel digital camera with its bag.
I do not know what your position is on the personal items, but they were irreparable.