Sewer Issue With Jackson Citizen
Thu 5-5-2022
(Jackson)- One of the big talking points at the Jackson City Council meeting on Tuesday was over a local man, Larry Clymer of Jackson Cycle, and his sewer system in which he claims he was told by city officials to run his sewer underneath the property of the school to a manhole across Springfield Parkway from him. Of course, not having a large amount of knowledge about how sewer systems work, Clymer did so, and now with the school construction they unknowingly unearthed his sewer, causing it to freeze and need to be replaced. Clymer came to the city for some financial help due to the situation in repairing that system, and explained his situation...
“So why was it done that way, in discussion, if the city's obligation was to run the sewer down Springfield Parkway down to a point where I could stub into it, it's too low. The city would have had to put in a lift station, majorly expensive. So I think, nobody will say this for sure, but it looks like the point was, we can run across Springfield Parkway, across the schoolyard and up into that manhole for a lot less money than we can put in a lift station, kinda makes sense to me I guess it would make sense to anyone spending money.”
Brad Anderson, City Attorney, cautioned against helping Mr. Clymer financially, saying that this would set a dangerous precedent with all the unknown private sewer lines and water lines throughout the city...
“I think there's gonna be a lot of things that come before the council and the city under similar situations where the city might have some causal connection to a loss, but if there's no public purpose, there's no public purpose, there's no public benefit, there's no public liability, I think that we can't make the payment, and second of all it would make a dangerous precedent that you might set and start with.”
Anderson's argument is twofold. First off, he says the city cannot make the payment legally, and second he says it would set that dangerous precedent. Once all the arguments for and against the payment of roughly $2,100 had been heard, a motion was put forward to find some way Clymer could be helped, even if that is not city money. The motion passed.