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4510 North Shore Drive <br />Orono, MN 55364 <br />October 23, 1997 <br />Mr. James Golembeck <br />Jardine, Logan & O’Brien PLLP <br />2100 Piper Jaflfray Plaza <br />St. Paul, MN 55101 <br />Reference: Water run-off damage to 4500 & 4510 North Shore Drive, Orono, MN <br />Berkley Risk Services Claim #1013809 <br />Allied Adjusters File #MPS26160 & #MPS26596 <br />Dear Mr. Golembeck <br />The purpose of this letter is to set forth our response to the verbal, proposed <br />settlement offer that was given to us by Mr. Peter Schroeder on behalf of the LMCIT and <br />the City of Orono and lO provide to the Orono City Council along with the Mayor and the <br />homeowners on Tonkaview Lane, a description of what has transpired in our efforts to <br />recover damages from the LMCIT. This letter is a precursor to a suit which I will file, <br />naming the City of Orono and the owners of the residences located at 4615, 4620.4625, <br />4629, 4635 & 4650 Tonkaview Lane, Orono, MN. I am writing this letter on behalf of my <br />wife, Kathy and myself and on behalf of John and Beth Bessesen, who are our next door <br />neighbors and who have been damaged even more than we have by the runoff from <br />Tonkaview Lane due to the recent construction on that road. <br />The settlement offer that both the Bessesens and Kathy ano J received was that the <br />City of Orono was not responsible for this nmoff, and that Mr. Schroeder was given <br />authority negotiate up to $5,000 per home. The reason for this position as Kathy was <br />told was a Minnesota Supreme Court case, Chabot v. The City of Sauk Rapids. She was <br />told that this case stood for the fact that a city was not liable for maintaining an <br />unimproved water drainage system that caus^ damage to property, and somehow that <br />this court case had some relevance to our situation. I agree that the Chabot case has <br />relevance to the present situation but the position that you have taken is almost ludicrous. <br />This case dealt with a person who built a home at the lowest point of a landscape <br />(streambed) across the road from a natural holding pond which somehow the city obtained <br />control of but neither was responsible for shaping nor creating that pond. The variance <br />granted to that homeowner was that the natural flow of water was to be maintained. One <br />day, a ten year-type rain occurred and damaged his home substantially. He sued the city <br />for the damage. <br />I <br />J