‘It’s unacceptable’: Neighbors dispute water main break denial at city commission

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Months after a water main break on Grand Rapids’ southeast side affected nearly 200 homes, neighbors in the area say they’re working to pick up the pieces with no financial help from the city.

The water main broke June 13 at the intersection of Adams Street SE and Philadelphia Avenue SE, flooding the neighborhood. Grand Rapids has said it is not liable for the damages caused by the flood and would not reimburse residents.

Neighbors took their concerns to the Grand Rapids city commission.

“The city rejecting this claim is not only unbelievable, its unacceptable,” one resident at Tuesday night’s meeting said. “I want to ask you, is your conscience immune? Is the City of Grand Rapids morally exempt as well? The city is responsible for our damage.”

Residents shared their stories about the tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of damages from the city’s water main break back in June. The city’s letter cited governmental immunity for the denial of the claim, but the neighbors pushed back at the meeting.

In its response, the Risk Management Office said the city is “entitled to statutory immunity for damages to property unless one of six narrow exceptions applies.”

“None of you guys want to take the blame for this, those pipes say ‘The City of Grand Rapids.’  Those are your pipes that flooded our homes. And now we have to live with it,” resident Larry Gibbs said.

For the first time since the denial, the city responded to the residents’ concerns.

“I empathize with them, and I certainly would not want to have that experience and so I certainly understand how they feel horrific about it. I am equally sympathetic to what they are saying,” City Manager Mark Washington said.

Washington added that he wants this process to be amicable and that his main goal is to help the residents — but that could come at an extra cost to the residents.

“What I am asking for the residents to do is work with us through this process and for us to exhaust every possible outcome remedy and we have gone through the administrative claims process so the next process would allow them to get some sort of representation or see if we can come to some type of agreement,” Washington said.

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