http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110415/NEWS02/704159875
Published April 15, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
Springfield water main break causes havoc
By SUSAN SMALLHEER
SPRINGFIELD — Chris Coughlin said he didn’t believe Springfield Fire Chief Russell Thompson this January when Thompson came to his house and told him the basement of his historic apartment house on Park Street was flooded.
Coughlin, who has owned the 1802 house since 1977, said the house sits on such sandy soil that any spring runoff immediately disappears. He has always had a dry basement.
So he was shocked when he discovered that the fire chief was telling the truth.
His 10-foot-deep, stone-lined basement was full of water, up to the basement windows. Old fuel tanks were bobbing like giant apples. By his calculations, there were 180,000 gallons of the town’s water in his basement.
“I could have gone kayaking in my cellar,” he said.
The flood was a result of a broken water main on Jan. 25 in the middle of Park Street and by Coughlin’s estimation it caused about $165,000 in damage to the large white building, which long ago was divided up into seven apartments.
“The foundation is already collapsing,” said Coughlin, pointing to the gaping holes in both his lawn and foundation as he showed the damage to reporters this week. He’s also afraid that the two main chimneys in the house are already starting to tilt.
He said he’s received estimates for $23,000 to clean up the oil and mold contamination, $26,000 to replace the heating system and $83,000 to repair the foundation.
Coughlin, 67, a retired mill worker and machinist, has asked Springfield town officials to give him copies of key documents about the various water and sewer projects in the Park and Union street areas in recent years, which were designed to increase pressure in the hill areas of town.
The new improvements included a 1 million gallon storage tank above Union Street School, which Coughlin said he was told was emptied when the water main ruptured.
In fact, Coughlin said, the town has experienced a lot of water main breaks after the new water system went online, listing off a series of major breaks in the past year.
“When you put more pressure into old pipes than it can support, you get broken water mains,” said Coughlin.
He also asked the Select Board to talk to its insurance carrier, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, about why it has so far rejected any responsibility for the damage.
Coughlin, a bit of an amateur legal researcher, has already discovered that an old “stub pipe” was mistakenly left as part of the new system, and he blames that pipe for bursting, flooding the street and the basement.
“It was just like a cork in a wine bottle,” he said.
Coughlin, 67, hasn’t filed a lawsuit but has talked to attorneys, who he said estimated it would cost at least $50,000 to sue the town, money he doesn’t have and action he doesn’t want to take. But he asked the Springfield Select Board this week for copies of documents so he can do his own research.
His insurance company has already said it won’t cover the damage, and just recently, the town’s insurance company, through the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, called the water main break “an act of god” and refused to cooperate.
Jeffrey Strong, the Springfield water and sewer superintendent, said Wednesday that a large water main break did occur and as a result, a large amount of water ran into the basement of Coughlin’s house.
“It was a very unfortunate thing,” said Strong, declining further comment. He said as far as he knew, only Coughlin’s apartment house was flooded.
Robert Forguites, the Springfield town manager, said he was on bereavement leave after his wife’s death when the water main broke and he never went to the scene and never saw the damage.
Forguites said he and Kristi Morris, the chairman of the Springfield Select Board, plan to meet with Town Attorney Stephen Ankuda soon to discuss Coughlin’s request and the problem.
Coughlin gave reporters a tour of the building and its basement Wednesday. The stench of fuel oil was overpowering, and a large mound of sandy dirt sat in the basement — fill that washed into the cellar through the stone foundation. Water stains were clear almost up to the floor beams.
The cellar has many special colonial features: large brick arches are built into the base of both chimneys, with and impressive stonework.
After the flood, Coughlin’s two tenants were forced to move out because all the electrical systems and heating systems were ruined by the flood. A tenant who was going to move in a few days later was also forced to find another place to live.
Coughlin said there was a relatively small amount of fuel oil — the tanks contained about 15 gallons each and were no longer in use.
Coughlin said he’s had a hard time keeping his apartments filled in recent years with all the road, water and sewer construction in the Park-Union street neighborhood. That, plus, he admits, he is pretty selective about the tenants he accepts.
Coughlin wants his apartment house, by no means a fancy place, restored to its condition back on Jan. 25. He said immediate cleanup efforts were stopped when the Vermont League of Cities and Towns asserted the town had no liability, and as a result, the house sat empty and unheated this winter so there’s now also a nasty mold problem.
Coughlin suggested that the town should buy the Brown Holt building. He said a former superintendent of schools once suggested that the school system buy the building and turn it into offices for the school administration.
Albert J. Marro / Staff Photo The basement of an historic house located on the corner of Park and Whitcomb Streets in Springfield. The owner maintains the fine dirt piled up on the floor is the result of a broken water main on Park Street which forced water and dirt under the wall and into the cellar. The water line can be seen on the walls.
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