Getting that sinking feeling over the cost of home ownership

Dave Tulecki points out a sinkhole that formed in the alley behind his Fleming house. The city is now charging homeowners for repairing sinkholes caused by leaking sewer lines.

By Charles Sercombe
Take a look at the alley behind your home.
Chances are you will see a sinkhole. The alleys in town are scattered with them.
In many cases, the cause of the sinkhole is a leaking sewer connection from a house to the main sewer line. For decades the city has apparently fixed the leak on the taxpayers’ dime.
That is now changing.
Take Dave Tulecki, who owns a home on Fleming. Recently a garbage truck sank in a neighbor’s sinkhole and had to be rescued by the use of a heavy-duty tow truck.
In the process of hauling out the garbage truck, Tulecki said the tow truck’s weight caused a depression on his side of the alley. In other words, a sinkhole.
Flash forward several days and Tulecki receives a notice from the city saying he owes the city $4,600 to fix a suspected leaking sewer line.
“Who has that money?” said an outraged Tulecki, the owner of a small auto repair shop tucked in the middle of a neighborhood at Evaline and Brombach.
According to a city ordinance, the homeowner is responsible for maintaining that connection.
Tulecki, understandably, was upset. He wonders how the city can say it’s his fault without even busting open the asphalt.
And secondly, it appears to him that the fault lies with the too-heavy tow truck, which not only depressed his part of the alley but possibly could have broken up the sewer line underneath.
“How do they know if the truck didn’t cause the damage?” Tulecki said.
Hold on to all of that, said Mark Ragsdale, the Director of Public Works.
While he admits to taking an educated guess that the sinkhole was caused by a leaking sewer line or connection, if it is found out after the asphalt is broken out that it’s the city’s responsibility, the homeowner is off the hook.
“We’re not going to charge the homeowner when it’s not their responsibility,” Ragsdale said.
On the other hand, if it is the homeowner’s responsibility, the city isn’t going to pay for it either.
“The city doesn’t have the money to fix these,” Ragsdale said.
Ragsdale had a budget of $400,000 to fix the city’s leaking sewer lines, but that has already been spent. It appears homeowners have been getting freebies.
Ragsdale has been on the job several months and has been finding odd quirks about how things got done. He now has a new policy about sinkholes: Follow the city’s ordinance.
But that doesn’t mean homeowners have no choice in the matter. They can hire their own contractor, instead of the city’s, to do the work and there’s a chance the job can be done for less money.
But using your own contractor requires the pulling of a permit and a city inspector to inspect the work and sign off on it.
Homeowners are generally given 10 days to get the repairs done because it’s usually an emergency situation that might prevent garbage trucks from coming down the alley.
While spending over $4,000 is a good deal of money for many homeowners, the city is willing to take a one-third down payment and then divide up the balance in six equal payments, Ragsdale said.
But that deal is offered only when the city’s contractor is used, and it’s entered into before the city begins making repairs.
So far, 15 homeowners have been given notice.
In the meantime, Tulecki said that after thinking things over, he agreed to go with the city’s contractor, and plunked down a deposit.
“What can you do?” he said.