When a portion of Liberty Street fell into the St. Johns River early that Sunday morning in February, the costs started mounting.
Not just for the city, which ultimately will spend at least $65 million fixing the makeshift lake and surrounding area. Adjacent homeowners felt the pinch, too.
The collapse caused the Riverwalk Townhomes at The Plaza to be without electricity for almost a month. Some sought refuge with friends or at a hotel. Some lost refrigerators full of food. Others who rented the units out lost income.
All told, the city received 19 claims for damages from those homeowners, totaling almost $75,000. They’ve all been paid.
Michele Vicari, a renter in the community, filed a claim for $640. Not for food or lodging — at least not for her. Instead, she filed the claim to cover the expense of boarding her two Maltese, Roxy and Zoey.
The Jacksonville Orthopaedic Institute worker and her son stayed with her daughter in an apartment off Atlantic Boulevard. It was cramped, but the big problem was her daughter’s bigger dog. Vicari didn’t feel comfortable leaving her small dogs there during work and didn’t want to stay at a hotel.
Boarding was the only expense she believes she would not have made had she stayed.
“I can’t complain about anything,” she said in an upbeat tone.
Beverly Chapman, her friend and neighbor, took care of her paperwork. Chapman owns a unit and also filed a claim for $291, an amount that covered lost groceries and a meal in a restaurant.
She stayed with a friend a few nights, slept at her townhome others.
“Cold and dark is fine for sleeping,” she quipped.
Of the 19 claims, the highest was a little more than $11,000 for a “professionally cleaned and painted home.” The lowest was Chapman’s $291.
Situations like the Liberty Street collapse don’t come up very often in Twane Duckworth’s line of work.
“This one’s been a bit different,” said the city’s risk manager.
Typically, when claims are filed they’re extensively reviewed and could even head to court.
Duckworth said there was a review, but the city didn’t want to “nickel and dime” the homeowners on what came across as reasonable expenses.
“We just wanted them to know we cared … there was a little bit of give and take,” he said. “It was more of an art than a science.”
The last claims were paid in the past month or so, Duckworth said.
As for the response from the homeowners, several who were interviewed had nothing but praise for how that part of the situation has been handled.
“The city was actually very, very good,” said Terrence Rodda, the longtime homeowners’ association president.
Chapman and Vicari said it was a good experience, with a city worker even going to Vicari’s job for the requisite signatures on her claim.
But, that’s just part of it. There’s still a water-filled hole in the ground.
Rodda said homeowners have an ongoing concern about public safety, as responders can’t conveniently access the community. Complaints, he said, actually started three years ago when a crane collapsed part of the road.
Chapman said she’s not happy with the prospect of seeing the hole every day. She realizes funding is tight, but it has to be fixed.
Rodda said he thinks it should take a year, tops. And, he’d like to see more of an effort from the city. The first parts of the much-needed repairs to that stretch will take place closer to the Hyatt Jacksonville Riverfront.
“That’s important,” he said, “but how about the 200 units in the (Berkman) Plaza and 20 units and families in the townhomes?”
Mayor Lenny Curry and his team have vowed for an accelerated approach to fixing the bridge — technically, that stretch is built over water — of the area and have budgeted $65 million over the next five years for Liberty Street, Coastline Drive and parking deck projects.
In mid-July, Curry requested an inspection of Coastline Drive to be bumped up from its scheduled August date to the week of July 20. That stretch, between Market and Liberty streets, “has impacted businesses and disrupted traffic long enough,” Curry said in a news release at the time.
The inspection, he said, would help define and speed up those repairs for that area. That part of the road has been restricted to one-way and a 3-ton limit as a precaution.
At the time of that inspection, Daily Record news partner WJXT TV-4, citing Florida Department of Transportation officials, reported repair estimates for Coastline Drive from Newnan to Market streets would cost $12.5 million; the Liberty Street bridge would cost $8.8 million; and the intersection of Coastline Drive and Newnan Street would cost $1.1 million.
Work could start as soon as October and take two years, according to that report.
Curry’s budget calls for $5 million to be spent next year; $9 million in 2016-17; $22 million in 2017-18; and $23 million in 2019-20.
It was all costs that began mounting when the road came tumbling down.
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