Brewer man awaits check from water district

BREWER – More than six months after he was forced to pay more than $8,000 to repair sewer line damage caused by a Brewer Water District contractor, Gregory Mullins is still waiting to be reimbursed.

Mullins was told he could not be repaid until after the money for the claim was released by the insurance company that took the water district project over after Campbell Construction went bankrupt. However, a Maine Public Utilities Commission spokesman confirmed that nothing in the rules and regulations prevented the district from using its own funds to reimburse the homeowner.

The damage apparently occurred during the summer of 2000, while the water district was working on water lines in the Penobscot Street area. According to a Nov. 13, 2001, letter written by Steven Swensen, an engineer from the firm Camp Dresser & McKee Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., the damage resulted from drilling and blasting to remove ledge.

“The breakage and blockage of the sanitary service was directly next to the new 8-inch [water] main,” which he added was at the same elevation. He noted that the water main crossed Mullins’ sanitary service. He also observed that city public works personnel found the clay sewer main in that area to be full of rocks and debris.

Mullins said he recalls the work being done, but did not become aware of the damage affecting his sewer line until last year, when he began having problems with the plumbing at his home, including a sewage backup.

After it was determined that the sewer line damage was a result of the water district construction, Mullins submitted an itemized bill to the water district.

Expenses listed in the bill, which amounted to $8,127, were a $1,677 bill from Roto-Rooter Sewer and Drain Service, which Mullins called in after sewage began backing up into his basement; a $6,275 bill from the excavating company he hired after it became apparent that the problem wasn’t due to a sewer line blockage; a bill for $150 from the professional cleaning company hired to clean and disinfect the basement; a $25 fee for the city permit needed before digging could commence.

In December, water district Superintendent Gerald Carstensen told Mullins he would submit the bill to RLI Corp.’s insurance office in Peoria, Ill., which took over the project after Campbell Construction went under. In the meantime, Mullins paid the bills out of his own pocket.

Since then, Mullins said, Carstensen’s projections of when the payment would be made have varied from “a couple of months,” to this spring, to “not at this time.”

“I felt like I was getting the runaround,” Mullins said, adding that he was not putting any of the blame on the district’s workers, who had provided excellent service to his family over the years. The problem, he believed, stemmed from those in charge, including the trustees in office at the time, two of whom have since been replaced by the City Council.

After the reimbursement failed to materialize in March, Mullins contacted the PUC’s Consumer Assistance Division, which looked into the matter.

On April 2, a PUC consumer assistance specialist wrote Carstensen a letter directing him to “reimburse the full amount immediately.”

When asked this week why Mullins had not yet been reimbursed, Carstensen said the money was being withheld by the bond firm until the 2000 project was officially closed. Telephone calls to RLI’s Peoria office were not returned Friday. Carstensen also said district funds could not be used to reimburse Mullins.

“We can’t use ratepayer money to do that,” he said after a trustees meeting Monday afternoon.

PUC spokesman Phil Lindley said Friday that nothing in the commission’s rules and regulations prohibited the Brewer Water District from reimbursing Mullins from its own funds. Utilities, he added, have contingency accounts for various unanticipated costs.

He said the bond company’s reason for withholding payment to the water district was reasonable, but had no bearing on the Mullins case.

“That’s the excuse we received [from the water district] but that’s no reason for the water district to delay the reimbursement,” he said.

After consulting the supervisors and staff in the Consumer Assistance Division, Lindley said Friday that the latest word from Carstensen was that the payment would be made soon and that the payment would be made out of the district’s funds, in an apparent reversal of his decision.

Lindley said Carstensen indicated to the PUC staff that Mullins would be repaid by the end of next week or early the week after.

Also troubling to Mullins were copies of correspondence he received from the PUC. Some of the letters that the district sent to the PUC about his complaint included “carbon copy” notations indicating copies had been sent to him. Mullins said he had not received copies of the letters.

When asked about that matter, Carstensen said he had no explanation for the alleged omission.