The City of Estevan has reached a settlement with the local woman whose basement was flooded during an intense storm in June.
In an interview with The Mercury Friday, Mayor Gary St. Onge said the City had reached an agreement with Cheryl Alexus that will see her receive roughly half of the $40,000 in damages she incurred as a result of the flood.
Alexus' basement was completely destroyed June 23 when an estimated 12,000 gallons of water poured into her home, which is located on the 400 block of First Street. As was first reported in the Sept. 29 edition of The Mercury, Alexus front yard and the street in front of her house were dug up for a sewer replacement project. Although the contractor on the project indicated they would have liked to fill the hole before leaving for the night, the City employee in charge of the scene instructed him to shut down for the evening.
Roughly three hours later as a large storm descended upon Estevan, rain water began flowing down Perkins Street and pooled up against a berm that had been constructed in front of her property to prevent against any possible flooding.
However, the berm proved to be no match for the water and eventually gave way leading to the flood.
"All of a sudden the water just started to shoot through. It just let loose, and it filled the basement in 10 minutes," said Alexus' boyfriend, Tim Wishart, in the September article.
What happened next was a classic case of passing the buck. Both Alexus' and the City's insurance companies claimed the flood was an act of nature and therefore Alexus was on the hook for the substantial bill, despite her contention that the flood happened because the City decided not to fill in the hole before leaving for the day.
Shortly after the article appeared, the members of city council met with Alexus and Wishart to discuss the matter and St. Onge admitted in an interview that a settlement may be in the works.
Along with reaching an agreement with Alexus, St. Onge said the City has also developed a policy to ensure such an event never happens again. In the future, the City will no longer perform a sewer replacement if a homeowner is having the sewer replaced on their property the same day. The obvious hope is that by keeping the jobs separate such a situation will never arise again.
"The only good part about it is, we now have a policy in place completely," said St. Onge. "We are also going to make sure to close (any open holes) up regardless and not take that chance. Hopefully this will never happen again. It was an expensive lesson."
The Mercury contacted Alexus for a comment on the settlement but she said she signed a confidentiality agreement as part of the settlement and would have no further comment.
To read the initial story on the flood, go to www.estevanmercury.ca
