Citizen Believes City is in Error

Mayor Struck and City Counselors,

I am informing the City of South Bend municipality that it is not in compliance with the law and in fact is in violation of city law.

I disagree with the mayor's statement to the Pacific County Press, "The city has no responsibility in paving that area." The city used the law, and started, planned, and performed demolition to the Maple Street sidewalk replacement project. Before demolition and removal of the existing sidewalk, the Maple Street asphalt was paved all the way to the sidewalk curb.

The city is civilly liable to repair the damage that it caused to the parking area of Maple Street as per South Bend city ordinance 10.20.040 subset c; which states, "Any person damaging any parking area upon the right of way, shall be civilly liable to the City of South Bend for the expense of restoring said parking area to the condition they were in before said damage occurred."

As I stated in my previous letter to the city: that dropping gravel on the parking area does not constitute job completion.

I find the City of South Bend's behavior during the Maple Street sidewalk replacement project to be highly hypocritical of the law of the land and unprofessional in regards to the execution of the project and the city's accountability.

A written response is requested.

Thomas L. Giacoma

South Bend, Wash.