Amendment pleases homeowners

State budget would allow for engineer's inspection of 'Tree Street' homes
By JEFF GEARINO - Southwest Wyoming bureau Posted: Monday, March 1, 2010 12:00 am

ROCK SPRINGS -- Lawmakers in both houses approved amendments to the state budget bill late last week that will pave the way for engineering inspections of "Tree Street" homes allegedly damaged in a Wyoming Abandoned Mine Lands mine subsidence project in 2007.
Rep. Bernadine Craft, D-Rock Springs, and Sen. John Hastert, D-Green River, successfully co-sponsored two budget amendments that would direct $120,000 to hire a "qualified engineer" to re-inspect homes to assess damages, the two lawmakers said in a media release.
The final budget bill still needs to pass the House and Senate before heading to Gov. Dave Freudenthal for his signature.
"There have been a lot of broken promises since the fateful project ... three years ago," Craft said.
"These people shouldn't still be dealing with the devastating consequences of having homes that are literally falling apart around them," she said. "It's time to get these people out of the House gallery and back into their homes."
Becky Kelley, the unofficial spokeswoman for Tree Street homeowners, said she and other residents were pleased with the amendments.
Kelley, Donna Maynard and several other homeowners spoke in support of the amendments while lobbying the Legislature the past two weeks.
"The support we have is unreal," Kelley said. "We're not done, by a long shot, but things are looking a lot better."
The legislation is effective immediately and would require assessments be completed by the engineers within 60 days, Craft said.
Based on the engineer's findings, Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg would then be required to provide new settlement offers to homeowners, according to the amendment.
Hastert said the budget amendment was a good use of AML funds.
"The bottom line is that this situation has arisen because of the actions of the state," he said. "What better way to direct our AML monies than to help people affected by seismic shifts of abandoned mines."
The Senate amendment was introduced by Sens. Hastert; Marty Martin, D-Rock Springs, and Stan Cooper, R-Kemmerer. It passed by a 20-10 vote Thursday morning.
A mirror bill in the House by Reps. Craft and Colin Simpson, R-Cody, passed unanimously that afternoon.
Particularly pleasing
Homeowners say more than a dozen Tree Street homes were damaged during the mine subsidence project that included an unproved-in-Wyoming reclamation technique known as dynamic compaction.
The project was conducted by the Wyoming Abandoned Mine Lands Division on a vacant tract of land adjacent to the Tree Street neighborhood. The project aimed to free vacant lands in the city that could be used to build affordable housing.
The project involved dropping 25- and 35-ton weights -- over undermined areas in the tract to collapse the underground mine voids beneath -- for three weeks beginning July 17, 2007.
Homeowners' complaints about damage halted the project. Residents said vibrations from the dynamic compaction was shaking homes; cracking foundations, driveways, walls and ceilings, and causing gaps in windows and doors among other damage.
The state sent engineers to assess 19 damage claims filed by homeowners and followed with settlement offers.
All but two of the homeowners rejected the state's offer, however, as way too low to adequately pay for the needed repairs.
State officials and attorneys representing the homeowners have been engaged in discussions for more than a year, trying to finalize the details of a mediation agreement that would have led to the new inspections by geotechnical engineers.
Craft noted the No. 1 priority for use of AML funds is to address issues of health and human safety. "We're so lucky that at this point no one has been seriously injured." she said.
Craft said passing the budget amendment was particularly pleasing because a similar amendment by Craft and Hastert that sought funding for new engineering studies failed during the 2009 session.
"Passing the amendments was a definite high point in the session," she said. "We had House members totally united in their support of private citizens."
Contact southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino at 307-875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp.com