'HEY BIG BROTHER" the sequel 5meb

Someone asked how Mrs. Bihary was dealing with her garage issue. Well, here's her follow-up letter to Councilman Flock. I give this lady a lot of credit: she's smart and not going to go quietly into the shadows. I call it "Moxie"

Dear Andy, October 11,2010

Excavation began this morning at 7am on our garage. On Friday, Oct 1 John Schlund city inspector, the cement contractor, and the construction contractor were in our back yard discussing the placement and elevation of the garage. John said there wasn't a topographical survey done, but the city would help us out with that. He was going to talk to the architect. The contractor called on Friday, Oct 8 and said the cement crew would start Monday, Oct 11. This was a week delay because Mr. Schlund wanted to talk to the architect. Mr. Schlund shows up at the garage site Monday just before noon. He says he didn't talk to the architect. Nothing has been decided about the elevation. He gives me an ultimatum either IO agree to raise the garage floor an arbitrary 8 inches from the drawing or I will have to get the topographical survey done. In other words, stop construction which meant leaving 4 foot trenches all around the perimeter and a dump truck full of fill gravel sitting in the driveway. First of all, I was lead to believe he had taken care of the elevation issue. I had not received a call telling me he was unable to get in contact with the architect. It was my understanding that the construction could not go forward until the elevation problem was solved. The cement contractor works with the city and did not want to go ahead with the digging until he had the cities OK. Since he was going ahead with the digging, I thought the elevation issue was resolved.
Instead Mr. Schlund shows up and arbitrarily moves the floor level up 8 inches. So the crew commences to redo their measurements and bring in three truck loads of fill gravel needed for the change in elevation.
I am halting construction. This 8 inch change in the architect plan causes the elevation of the garage floor to be 9 inches higher then the back door sell. It also means out of the garage the slope will be a foot drop in 7 feet to the driveway. That is too much drop in such a short space. This is also where the turning radius into the garage will be tight. It will be to hard to turn and go up a steep slope into the garage. It the driveway is higher at the garage the water will pool at the back door with no place to go except in the house. (this was the situation when we moved in the house in 1995. The back door was rotted and the stairs to the basement needed replaced. The problem was solved by removing dirt so the water would collect in the back yard.)
I will call a surveyor tomorrow. Hopefully, he can come out at a moments notice. I believe the elevation the contractor was planning to use would have been just fine. We have to go with the existing house elevations. Excavation needs to be done so the water will flow to the back of the property. The problem with that is there is no elevation drop. The city has discussed trenching down the back of all the properties on our street. This would be one answer to the problem. The storm drain is on the opposite side of the street. To connect to that would be expensive and I do not believe the city will let us do that.
So, we are back to the issue of not building anything until the water problem is solved. Jacking the garage floor up so high that it becomes unusable is not a satisfying answer. It does not solve the water problem.
As you know, the city took us to court for not replacing the barn we tore down with a garage. The city was shown in court the water problem we have. The water problem is what destroyed the barn. The water problem is not being addressed adequately or professionally.
The garage will not be built if the city can't come to a compromise with the elevation of the garage floor and some guarantee the trench across the back of the property will be done by the city in the near future.

Bullied by the city again,

Nancy

Well after Councilman Flock was informed of the situation he managed to get all parties together. From the assistant city manager to the inspector, even the cement contractor. It was resolved to go back to the original plans. And we all lived happily ever after. Not so fast... Mrs. Bihary had to shell out another $500 dollars to get here property surveyed remember.
I just hope Ms. McMahon had something better in mind when she mentioned having better relationship with the "customers" of Painesville.