City failed to maintain waterlines

I respond to the Wednesday Dispatch article “City denies 3 claims for flooding damage.” The city of Columbus has denied the claims of the homeowners whose houses were damaged because of the waterline that the city of Columbus installed. This line belongs to the city of Columbus and should be maintained with taxpayers’ money by the water department of Columbus.

I worked for Columbia Gas of Ohio and you can bet the farm that if this was a natural gas line, Columbia would pay for all the damage, plus housing for the people until they could move back into their homes.

John Ivanic, assistant director of the Department of Public Utilities, claimed in an email that the city found no obvious cause for the failure. The most obvious reason for the failure was poor waterline maintenance.

Columbia Gas maintains its gas lines every day. Regarding the waterlines, the letter the city sent to homeowners states it isn’t negligent because its crews “responded promptly once notified of the problem.” Columbus Gas also responded promptly once notified of a problem, and it still ends up paying for all of the damage.

I believe it’s time for the courts and the representatives of these people to look into this matter and help them instead of kicking them while they are down. Is this the kind of people we want running and representing our city?

Carl Felton Columbus