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Lincoln (Lincoln Journal Star) — The city will likely not be paying the claims of Lincoln homeowners whose mailboxes were sideswiped by a city snow plow during the weekend of Feb. 16-17.
Miki Esposito, director of Lincoln Transportation and Utilities, wanted the city to pay the claims, and she and her staff encouraged people to file a claim for a damaged mailbox.
She was hoping to create an exception, allowing reimbursement to mailbox owners along Normal Boulevard, where a city snow plow damaged or destroyed about 30 mailboxes over a stretch of 20 blocks.
But the law got the last word. And the city Law Department staff will be recommending denial of mailbox claims, as they have in the past.
The city has no legal obligation to pay for mailboxes damaged or destroyed during snow removal, according to Chris Connolly, acting city attorney.
State law specifically allows an exemption to paying for damaged mailboxes and a city ordinance releases the city of liability for mailboxes, which are in the city right of way, Connolly said.
The mailboxes “are on city property. Things that are in the right of way may be subject to damage and that is at the risk of the property owner,” Connolly said.
“We are sympathetic to those who had mailboxes damaged by snow plow operations,” but the decision from the Law Department was to have no change in the traditional policy, Connolly said.
At least five people had submitted claims for mailboxes damaged by snow plows even before recent storms, based on recent claims reports to the council.
The City Council can override the Law Department recommendation on claims, though they seldom do.
The city did create an exception to its claims policy for property owners whose homes or businesses were damaged by sewer water backing up from the Theresa Street Treatment plant during heavy rains in 2014 and 2015.
There are several differences between the two situations, said Connolly. The sewage damage was the result of a 500-year storm, so it is very unlikely to occur again. And the damage was to privately owned property on private property.
“Here, we are talking about damage to private property that is on public property,” he said.
Earlier Lincoln Transportation and Utilities staff said about 30 mailboxes were hit intermittently at houses between 40th and 63rd streets along the north side of Normal.
An investigation into the damage is not completed, according to Holley Salmi, Lincoln Transportation and Utilities spokeswoman.
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