Fed-up homeowner files report with city seeking compensation from Hurricane Matthew

Feb. 04--After his crawl space flooded last year, Hal Seiple got fed up and did something unusual: He filed an out-of-court claim asking the city of Fayetteville to pay for the damage.

Seiple and his wife, Margie, live in the Lafayette Village subdivision off Hope Mills Road. They have an open drainage ditch that partially flows underground in a pipe through their side yard and under their street, Tupelo Circle.

One warm afternoon last week, the couple showed a reporter the shallow ditch where small trees, vines and other ground cover have formed along the banks. The opening to the pipe is partially caved in.

Hal Seiple said he has been asking the city for the past six years to clean the ditch and fix the pipe to improve the flow of stormwater going through their neighborhood.

Rob Stone, the city's Engineering and Infrastructure director, said the drainage system around Tupelo Circle was developed in the late 1950s or early '60s. He confirmed the city received a request in 2010 on the ditch.

"At that time, city staff investigated and found no blockages in the ditch or pipe," Stone said in an email Thursday.

When Hurricane Matthew struck last October, water poured out of the ditch and into the Seiples' crawl space, ruining their air-conditioning unit, as well as a dehumidifier. The floodwater also washed out a plastic liner they had installed in 2010 to control humidity under their three-bedroom brick home.

The damage cost several thousand dollars, the couple said.

"I paid my taxes," Margie Seiple said. "I don't need to be fixing my home every couple of years."

After residents called the city again last October, city staff "found that the old pipe was beginning to fail and was threatening the street," Stone said.

The city is developing a project to replace the pipe. The design will take about two months, with construction to follow as the city budget allows.

Instead of going to court or hiring a lawyer, Hal Seiple filed a damage report with the city's Risk Management Department, citing Hurricane Matthew and another flooding in 2014 that caused minor damage under his home.

The report is the same kind of liability claim residents can file when an employee in a city vehicle hits a parked car or scrapes a mailbox, and the city must pay for repairs.

According to a records request by The Fayetteville Observer, his is the only such flooding report citing the Oct. 8 storm.

For three months, Hal Seiple heard nothing from the city about his claim, which doesn't cite the value of the damage.

Then on Jan. 19, he got a letter from the N.C. League of Municipalities, a lobbying group for towns and cities that also is the third-party administrator for Fayetteville's liability insurance program.

The letter informed the couple the city was planning to do a maintenance project to remove the trees and other overgrowth in the ditch and improve the drainage pipe as soon as it obtains the necessary easements from their neighbors.

"Please be advised that any upcoming work is not considered an admission of any liability for your pending claim," the letter said.

Seiple, a 66-year-old retired firefighter who worked on Fort Bragg, shrugged.

"It's too little, too late," he said. "Is it appreciated? Yeah, maybe, if it will never happen again."

The planned work for Tupelo Circle is similar to projects on the city's five-year stormwater capital improvement plan. It totals $11.3 million through 2018, but it depends on additional increases in the stormwater fee, which is now set at $45 per single-family home on annual tax bills. A divided City Council last year declined to raise the fee.

The Seiples' council representative, Bobby Hurst, is an advocate for raising the fee, he said, to ensure the capital projects are done.

Part of the existing fee pays for minor work, such as clearing out ditches and operating street sweepers that keep storm drains clear of debris.

In an interview last week, Hurst said he empathized with residents with drainage problems.

"It's unfortunate that we aren't moving fast enough to fix these problems," the five-term councilman said. "I have several complaints in my district, and we need to fix the flooding."

How optimistic is he about the City Council finding more money in an already-strained budget?

"I'm a little nervous about it, but we have to do everything that we can," Hurst said.

Staff writer Andrew Barksdale can be reached at barksdalea@fayobserver.com or 486-3565.

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