Chanhassen homeowners who had hoped to get financial help from the city for their sewage-ravaged basements are apparently out of luck.
The Chanhassen City Council decided Monday not to adopt a proposal reimbursing homeowners $2,500 each to clean up sewage waste that backed up into more than two dozen Chanhassen Hills neighborhood houses following a water main break on Feb. 23.
Most council members said that providing any money would set a bad precedent, since the city's insurer, Travelers, has ruled twice that the city has no liability and that it won't pay claims.
The broken water main flooded a sewage pipe, resulting in the waste backup.
Homeowners said that the city or Travelers should reimburse them for damages because it wasn't their fault.
"We're very frustrated," said Amy Powell, whose basement was flooded.
Even if the city had agreed to pay the $2,500, she said, it wouldn't have come close to covering costs for at least a dozen people, whose damage range from $10,000 to $30,000. Some homeowners lost carpets, washers, dryers, water heaters and carpeting, and had to replace the lower portion of walls, she said.
The mayor and three of four City Council members said they were against payments from the city. Council Member Denny Laufenburger disagreed, saying that payments were warranted because the flooding was a unique incident. Two council members said they want to review correspondence between the city and Travelers.
