Elkader Council reaches agreement with GEAR to pay for sidewalk repair
By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register
It was a tumultuous start to the recent Elkader City Council meeting as GEAR Elkader owner Mike McShane and council members sparred over who is ultimately responsible for paying for and repairing a portion of the sidewalk to prevent continued flooding into the basement of McShane’s business. The crux of the issue appears to be the grade of Mascara Park, which was altered when it was reworked over a decade ago. This alteration made the ground higher than the foundation for the next-door building.
McShane said he has personally invested $2,200 to address the problem.
“Whoever built the park didn’t survey it. They made it so all the water from your park drains into my building and onto my property,” he said.
The conversation quickly shifted into how to fix the problem. Council member Peggy Lane asked whether repairing the sidewalk would even fix the issue. McShane responded that repairing the sidewalk and evening out the grade would create a foundation that would lead to the water running into the street rather than into the basement of his building.
“Look, I’m a nice guy, I pay my taxes, but if the city causes my building to flood, I’m going to invoice you for it. It’s that simple,” McShane said. “I’m not trying to be hard, but you can make a decision today or pay for it every single year.”
This statement caused council member Randy Henning to question whether McShane was threatening the council.
McShane responded, “No, I’m not. But if it happens again, what would you do?”
“I’d try to get it fixed myself,” Henning replied.
“If we do this and it doesn’t fix it, will you still invoice us?” asked Lane.
While there was some debate about the accuracy of McShane’s statement of where the flooding is coming from and who is at fault, and his claim that public works director Jason Scherf agrees.
Scherf responded in a separate interview and the question of whether the flooding is a by-product of the grade of Mascara Park isn’t a certainty.
According to Scherf, “The basement flooding issues could be really coming from anywhere. It’s hard to determine. Water can travel quite a ways underground. The issue with the GEAR building is the snow melt. When the spring melt starts, the water from the melting can back up onto the building.”
However, Scherf agreed with the overall repair, which includes creating an area for the runoff to run away from the GEAR building. He said trenching that area next to the sidewalk, catching it in a tile and running it out to the street should take care of the issue. The repair would also include removing a tree and a bush to help with drainage. The new sidewalk or concrete pad, with tile, would provide that drainage.
According to Elkader City Administrator Jennifer Cowsert, who is responsible is a debatable issue, depending on whether or not Mascara Park is the cause of the flooding. If it is a sidewalk, the state and city code would say that, but the portion GEAR wants the city to repair is called a “water diversion structure,” which would make it McShane’s responsibility to maintain.
In a separate interview, Cowsert added, “I think we are responsible to make sure that water on our property does not damage another property. All property owners should be responsible for managing water on their own property and not allowing it to enter another’s property.”
At the meeting, McShane continued to seek a resolution, stating, “Either we can work together on it or we can’t. I’m not threatening anybody, but I shouldn’t be inconvenienced every single year.”
Following this, Mayor Josh Pope asked if McShane would be willing to put money toward the fix, which will cost around $3,300 and be taken from local option sales tax revenue.
“I already put my $2,200 in,” McShane replied.
Lane still questioned whether it was the city’s responsibility, saying, “I question whether that’s going to fix the problem. We should only be working on what’s ours, not what’s somebody else’s.”
Despite the back and forth, council member Daryl Koehn motioned for the city to pay for the initial repair, if McShane is willing to take responsibility for it as long as he remains owner of the building going forward. More specifically, Koehn moved to accept the proposal from Zach Moyle to replace the sidewalk in front of the opera house and install a water diversion structure along the southerly side of Mascara Park. That’s provided the adjacent property owner accepts the improvement as a good faith effort on the city’s part to solve the drainage problem and acknowledges the structure is now his responsibility for repairs or replacement in the future and for snow removal. The motion passed unanimously.
In the aftermath, council member Bob Hendrickson joked, “holster your weapons before you come in here. We’re here to help.”
Additionally, council member Tony Hauber said in a separate interview, “If the grade of our parks are destroying retail property, it is our obligation to fix it. And though the talks started with some tumult, I believe we came to a worthwhile agreement for both parties.”
As for McShane, he simply said, “I am happy with the resolution.”
