Council urged to fix wall

August 19, 2014 Council urged to fix wall

By TESA GLASS tesa.glass@register-news.com The Register-News The Mt. Vernon Register-News Tue Aug 19, 2014, 06:14 AM CDT

MT. VERNON About 40 people blasted the City Council for choosing litigation over fixing a retaining wall on South 42nd Street.

In April 2012, Jon and Sarah Henninger addressed the council about problems with a retaining wall leaning over the sidewalk on North 42nd Street, asking the city to fix the problem before the wall fell on the sidewalk.

Since that time, the couple have filed a lawsuit against the city, and the wall has fallen onto the sidewalk. Last week, a sign was posted by the Henningers in their yard urging the city to please fix this wall.

According to City Attorney David Leggans, there is a legitimate dispute on the ownership of the wall. Its in litigation and being handled by the citys insurance carrier.

Resident Chris Donoho read a message from former Mayor Mark Terry, who explained the wall was built by the city.

Forty-second Street was widened during my last couple of years as mayor, Terry wrote. It was a city project, authorized, funded and directed by the city. If there was a design fault or construction fault by the contractor, that

caused the wall to fail, the city is responsible and should step up and accept responsibility. We can build beautiful water towers, spend thousands on signs to make sure we know where were going around the city and buy another study from every expert with a briefcase who drives through town selling his wares but sometimes we might just want (to) stop and look at the little things in the big scheme of things. This family did not cause this problem. They should not have to have a structural engineer on retainer to inspect this wall every year for structural integrity. The city should step forward, accept its responsibility, correct the problem and move on.

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Council urged to fix wall