Back in 2004 the City of Grand Marais hired a contractor to perform some sewer work on Wisconsin Street in front of Sivertson Gallery. Over the years Sivertson Gallery has experienced problems with its septic system and last summer gallery owner Jan Sivertson finally hired a firm to dig up the road and fix the problem.
What they found shocked everybody. The original contractor had not connected the gallery to the city’s sewer main.
Sivertson sent a letter to the Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and city asking to be reimbursed for the work done and for the water usage fees she has paid for all of these years. Sivertson asked for $61,700.
That was the main topic of conversation at the PUC’s June 1 meeting. The PUC board of George Wilkes, Karl Hansen and Tim Kennedy discussed the matter with the city’s attorney Chris Hood, who took part in the conversation over the phone from his St. Paul office. City Administrator Mike Roth, Water Plant Supervisor Tom Nelson and Electric Superintendent Mike Taylor and the board’s secretary Jan Smith were also in attendance.
Hood said Sivertson’s claim had been submitted to the city’s insurance company and it was denied. He said the insurance company suggested that Sivertson’s claim lies with the contractor who did the work and the engineer who designed the project.
“Does the city still have some responsibility?” Kennedy asked.
“From their [insurance company] perspective we don’t have any liability on this,” said Hood.
“Jan Sivertson certainly appears to have a claim,” said Hood. “I would advise her to contact an attorney and get legal counsel.”
“What are options for assisting her?” Wilkes asked. “Can we go after the contractor for failing to do the work properly?”
Hood said that would be an expensive option and not a good one for the city and wouldn’t help Sivertson because, “The PUC’s claim doesn’t get to the issue of damages like it does to Jan. There’s not a lot of benefit in a suit like that to the PUC because the PUC can’t make the claim for damages that Jan can.”
During the time Sivertson had problems, the city did send over a contractor who looked at the line with a scope, but Nelson said no one could see that the line wasn’t connected to the sewer main. “We could never tell until the line was dug up that it wasn’t hooked up,” he said.
The board asked Roth to draft a letter and send it to Sivertson explaining their predicament, and to make the letter cordial.
“Put me in her place and no words would make me feel cordial,” said Roth, who agreed to send Sivertson a letter.
Hood said the city could send a letter to the contractor and the engineering firm on behalf of Sivertson to let them know that the work they performed was improperly done and that might help her case.
As for the contractor who did the work, Roth said he wasn’t sure but thinks he is out of business but his name is still registered with the state. As for the engineer who designed the 2004 job, Roth thinks he is now working for another firm, and the firm that he was hired with originally no longer works in Cook County.
Hansen asked if the board could reimburse Sivertson for the water fees she has paid, but both Hood and Roth said they should wait until the situation “shakes out a little bit.”
“We all have sympathy for Jan, for her situation, but we need to wait,” Roth said.
“If in the end, she doesn’t get anything done I would definitely look at refunding her [water] fees,” Wilkes said, and the board concurred.
Jan Sivertson couldn’t attend this meeting, said Kennedy, but she planned to attend the board’s June 21 meeting. Unfortunately, Sivertson wasn’t at the June 21 meeting and she has not returned calls to the newspaper.
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