Minutes - Council - 06/25/2024 - Laserfiche WebLink

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took place she was contacted by Ames’ insurance company. She said the person she spoke to, Sherri, was rude and unsympathetic towards the situation. She shared that she was so upset that she cried while on the phone with Sherri and explained that this situation was not at all their fault and they just want their basement back. She noted that she and her family stayed in the house all week, suffering from terrible stomach aches, headaches, and sore throats. She said they did not have anywhere to go with four people and three dogs. She explained that when the insurance adjuster came to their home, he could smell the sewage from outside and said this was one of the worst sewage backup situations he had ever seen in his career. She added that the adjuster directed them to hire a biohazard cleaning company to have everything in their home cleaned to get the smell out. She shared that after the first week, Trish from Ames, called her and said that they had hired ServiceMaster to come clean all of their houses for a second time. She noted that last week they were told they were still waiting to schedule hygienists to come out to the homes to get samples from before ServiceMaster would be able to come out so they would be able to have a comparison for before and after the homes are cleaned. She explained that she sent emails to both the insurance company and to ServiceMaster to ask what all was included in the cleaning and she never received a response. She shared that after many calls and texts, they were told that they could get an AirBnB to house their family to get them out of the house, which is when they spent four days at an AirBnB in Ham Lake, which is the only place that would take them with their three dogs. She said the AirBnB was in the basement of someone’s home and was not a comfortable living situation. She went on to share that Ames brought a consultant over to the home who said the health standard of the house should be safe. She added that Ames is still dragging their feet to get a hygienist to the house while accusing the homeowners of not letting ServiceMaster into the home to clean. She shared that this past Saturday she walked through her home with a methane meter which detected methane throughout most of the main floor of their home, but slightly lower in the basement as an air scrubber had been placed down there. She noted that Ames and their insurance company have said ServiceMaster will only clean the basement and not upstairs. She explained that she again called Trish at Ames to ask about ServiceMaster cleaning and asked for a written list of what would be included, which Trish refused to provide, saying she ‘could not make any promises.’ She shared all of the terrible frustrations that this situation has caused, including displacing their family, sickness, and lost sleep. She noted that last Monday, over a week after the incident had occurred, they found out that the City Council had not been notified of this devastating incident. She asked why they had not heard from a single City or County official on this matter at all. She added that the day that the incident happened there was a State representative who was on location within a few hours, yet they have not heard anything since from this representative. She explained that the project that this sewer line was being worked on is a MnDOT, Anoka County, and City of Ramsey project and Ames is the one getting paid for this project. She asked why the City has not gone to bat for these residents to hold Ames Construction accountable for this matter. She asked why the sewer line was over capacity to begin with. She asked why 14 homes were approved to be added to this neighborhood without addressing the sewer line first. She asked what the malfunction was that caused this. She shared that their Councilmember was told that a temporary sewage line was set up that relied on an electric pump to move the sewage and either this pump failed or the generator that ran the pump ran out of fuel. She said she wanted to know what the City, County, and MnDOT are going to do to make this right for the six homes that were destroyed. She shared her concern with the actions that the City has taken, or lack thereof, for biohazard situations. City Council /June 25, 2024 Page 6 of 10