Water Line Project Mess Raises Ire Of Tulsa Homeowner

There is a price to pay for progress, but some people pay a higher price than others. Such is the case for a Tulsa woman and a city water-line project. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Steve Berg says there

Thursday, December 28th 2006, 12:11 pm

By: News On 6

There is a price to pay for progress, but some people pay a higher price than others. Such is the case for a Tulsa woman and a city water-line project.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg says there have been lots of people, at one time or another, who have had their yards torn up for a city project. We'll let the viewers be the judge if Jeri Freeman should be upset.

Jeri Freeman says it started last week, when they came home to find three or four large piles of soil and other fill material in their yard, but they couldn't get through to anybody on the phone. â€œEverything was closed for the Christmas holidays, so we've just been in limbo here."

Then Thursday morning, she says two more trucks pulled up and dumped two more large piles of fill material in her yard. "And I'm screaming, and I'm telling these people, this is my home you're destroying. Stop it."

She says one of the drivers made an obscene gesture toward her and that's when she went inside to call Tulsa Police, the workers left. She's flabbergasted. "You can't do things like this. You can't pull onto people's property and completely demolish it." Actually, to some extent, they can.

The News on 6 talked to a city of Tulsa spokesman. He says a city inspector went out to the Freeman's property and determined all the material is within the city's right of way, which you might be surprised to know, extends 25 feet from the center of the street. It's apparently legal, but Mrs. Freeman believes. "It's not right."

She says their lawn sprinkler system was also damaged. And technically, since the homeowner put it in the right of way, the spokesman told us the city is not liable for that either. "Of course I'm upset, who wouldn't be. We've lived here 40 years, and my heart and soul have gone into this lawn."

Most of the material is supposed to be gone in a few days. We can't say if this is more or less material than average. We don't know what the average is. But it does look like a lot. "I think when I say a bomb went off, it's a little over-exaggeration, but it's pretty bad."

As for the obscene gesture allegation, the spokesman for the city says those were not city workers there Thursday morning. He says it was either a private contractor hired by the city or possibly a subcontractor of the contractor. He says the city inspector will talk to the primary contractor and what the contractor chooses to do about it is up to him.