January 4, 2012

Suzanne Dougherty is what many would call the best neighbor to have.

The semi-retired Northeast woman has lived in her home on North Quincy since 1964, keeping her yard neatly manicured, prim and proper.

Dougherty, however, now has big problems.

Last month she called the city to report that part of the public sidewalk was heaving due to the large sweet gum tree in the city easement.

Dougherty, you see, was concerned about people walking along the sidewalk who could trip, fall and possibly suffer injuries over the single section of sidewalk that had heaved about an inch due to the roots of the trees.

City crews were dispatched to the scene and a series of arrows were spray-painted on the sidewalk.

The following day, another crew came out and added more arrows and told Dougherty that she was liable for the damages to the city-owned sidewalk that the city-planted tree on city-owned easement had caused.

Sadly, part of the city-owned curb on the public street is bad (not due to the tree mind you) so the crews heaped that onto her tab as well.

Dougherty, for being a conscientious citizen, now owes the city of Kansas City a little over $4,000 (this includes the 16 percent “gratuity” for overhead and inspection) for a new public sidewalk that spans the breadth of her small lot, a new driveway approach (on public easement) and a new curb (on the public street).

The city-owned, city-planted sweet gum tree, complete with annoying little balls that caused the ruckus to begin with (to a single section of sidewalk) according to city crews, will stay to cause even more damage.  

When queried by Dougherty about the tab for said repairs, the response from the city crew was, “You probably shouldn’t have contacted us about it.”

The moral of the story apparently is if you don’t want to shell out upwards of $5-large (don’t forget that gratuity) for city-owned and maintained property, let it rot!

With crazy stuff like this on the books, is it any wonder our infrastructure looks the way it does?