Home reinspections end; 'Tree Street' residents hopeful

Homeowners anxious to receive adequate compensation for damages from state

By JEFF GEARINO - Southwest Wyoming bureau | Posted: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 1:00 am
ROCK SPRINGS -- "Tree Street" residents are brimming with hope now that engineering teams have completed reinspections of the damage to their homes caused by a controversial 2007 subsidence project.
More than a dozen residents in the downtown Rock Springs neighborhood have been battling the state over the new inspections after rejecting Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg's first settlement offer in 2008 to repair damages.
Homeowners contend the state's first offers were way too low to adequately pay for much-needed repairs.
The reinspections wrapped up Friday and will serve as the basis for new settlement offers from the attorney general. Tree Street homeowners hope the next offers will more fairly compensate them for damage repairs.
"It took two years to get them here ... and I think we all breathed a sigh of relief" when the inspections were completed, Tree Street spokeswoman Becky Kelley said.
"I honestly think there will be some good reports coming back," she said.
Kelley said the engineers looked 14 homes, a church and an apartment complex during the week-long inspections that began May 3.
"These engineers seemed to have it together ... they're known for this kind of work," Kelley said. "So now we sit back and wait to see what happens next."
State officials contracted with J.A. Cesare and Associates of Centennial, Colo., last month to perform a second round of engineering inspections.
The Wyoming Legislature approved a budget amendment this past session that directed $120,000 for the hiring of a qualified structural engineer to perform the new damage assessments.
Fair compensation
The Tree Street homes were damaged during the mine subsidence project that was conducted by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's Abandoned Mine Lands Division beginning in late July 2007.
The project aimed to free vacant lands for new housing on a nearby tract of land that had been previously precluded for development because of past mine subsidence issues.
At the city's request, the state devised a reclamation plan that included the use of a pilot subsidence technique known as dynamic compaction.
For three weeks, state contractors dropped 25- and 35-ton weights several thousand times on the tract to collapse the old underground mine voids.
But soon after, Tree Street residents began complaining about major damage to homes, foundations, fences, decks, driveways, windows, doors, floors and other areas.
The state and DEQ officials have maintained the offers should fairly compensate homeowners for damage from the dynamic compaction portion of the project.
State officials said a lack of baseline information about homes and buildings surrounding the project site made it difficult for the first engineering inspections conducted in 2008 to discern what was damage from the dynamic compaction and what was damage that was to be expected from normal subsidence in the neighborhood.
Kelley said homeowners have not discounted further legal action if the new settlement offers fail to adequately pay for the repairs of damaged homes.
Attorneys for the Tree Street residents filed lawsuits in Sweetwater County District Court in July against two of the state's consulting engineers who had done work for the AML related to the dynamic compaction project.
"If the attorney general chooses not to increase the settlement offers, then we'll have the [new inspection] reports to take to court," she said.
Contact southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino at (307) 875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp