Dorchester declines to pay resident over lift station project complaints

By Neal Hogden

An ongoing discussion between the village and a landowner whose land was affected by the Dorchester lift station project that started in 2022 and was completed last year reached a breaking point at the village’s board meeting on May 8. The lift station installed by Haas and Sons, Inc. is located at the intersection of County Hwy. A and Liberty Street.

Rodolfo Fuentes Leonor attended the village board meeting on May 8 to explain his frustrations with the way his property has been affected by this project. He told the board in a letter that he would like a payment of $10,000 to cover the issues with the property, along with the headaches it has caused along the way. He wrote a letter to the board to better explain what his family had gone through during the project.

“We are asking for $10,000 and here is why. To begin, the value of our house went down. Our family also went through a hard time due to the sewer issue. We didn’t have water for three weeks. In those three weeks, we had respiratory infections, stress, anxiety, we couldn’t use our own bathroom, we had to go to the gas station, the church and would drive to friends or family’s houses to take showers. We went through all this stress because the village wouldn’t listen to our problems. We tried to fix it but it was something much bigger. We ended up finding stones stuck in the pipes when they built it. No one wanted to take blame on that issue about going onto our property. We just want this to be over because I’m tired of us being victims. We shouldn’t be going through this.”

Public Works Director Clint Penney clarified, saying the sewer line didn’t break. He said it sagged when they took dirt away from next to the sewer line and said Haas paid Steen Construction to fix that issue.

Deputy Clerk Christie Erikson said she had talked to the village’s engineering consultant for the project, Scot Balsavich from Cooper Engineering and he told her that any issues

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with the project or payment request from Fuentes Leonor would need to be paid by the contractor who performed the job.

Erikson recalled a conversation she had with Balsavich about the problem, previously.

“It should go back to Haas,” Erikson said. “I said, ‘Who’s going to do that?’ and he said, ‘Well, I’m the mediator. I’ll see to it that Haas pays for whatever expenses that are the problem.’ Now, I don’t think this is our issue. This is the contractor, the engineer and everyone else.”

“But having no water for three weeks?” Klemetson questioned.

“This is really only one side of the story,” Erikson said.

Penney said his understanding was Haas had already paid Steen to fix the problem. Fuentes Leonor said he tried to fix the problem first by buying tools and materials to fix it himself.

Penney said the village paid for Jakel Plumbing to come in and put a camera down the pipe to figure out what was wrong with Fuentes Leonor’s sewer line.

“The way I see it, he wants $10,000 for that land,” Klemetson said. “I think it’s going to be cheaper to get that slope off of his land and go back to square one and do what we’ve got to do.”

Erikson, Klemetson and board president Kurt Schwoch said they hadn’t heard that the family had issues with no water and sewer before he had just told them in the letter.

Erikson said she recalled Balsavich telling her there was some sort of insurance clause in the contract for the lift station that would ensure the village would not be paying for any project shortcomings.

Fuentes Leonor said if the village didn’t want to pay the $10,000, he would take them redoing his yard so the water drained well as payment instead.

Trustee Tom Carter said the land that is affected by slope issues is less than a tenth of an acre. He said a source told him the land would be worth an estimated $1,600.

Fuentes Leonor said the payment he is requesting from the village is not about the land, it was about the physical, emotional and financial toll the project caused his family.

He said he was frustrated because the village seemingly could do anything it wanted with his property because he didn’t complain enough.

At the village’s September 2023 meeting, Fuentes Leonor was in attendance and said he had an issue with the fence around the lift station being placed on his property.

At that time, Klemetson had strong words for the board saying that they needed to do right by the resident.

“We’ve gotta get that staked out because I’ll tell you what, if I lived where he lived, I’d be [very angry],” Klemetson said.

The board decided to contact Balsavich and see if they could set up a meeting with him, Haas and Fuentes Leonor to get the issue ironed out.

LAND IN QUESTION - The lift station project has changed the slope on the Rodolfo Fuentes Leonor’s land. The lift station is at the intersection of County Hwy. A and Liberty Street.

STAFF PHOTO/NEAL HOGDEN