KAUKAUNA — Kaukauna Mayor Tony Penterman responded publicly today to the controversy surrounding a controlled burn that got out of control and damaged the siding of a nearby home.
In a widely shared Facebook post that led to a story on Fox 11 TV news, home owner Jaime Schmitt said after the burn of brush in a city owned lot next to her property melted siding on one side of the house, the city admitted fault, but said they’d only pay to replace the siding on one side.
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Schmitt’s problem was that the siding color is no longer available, which would lead to mismatched siding on her home.
In a statement posted on the city’s Facebook page, Penterman wrote, “Regarding the recent controlled burn incident, we sincerely apologize to the homeowner whose property was damaged by heat despite additional safety measures that were put into place during the burn. We acknowledge the inconvenience and distress it has caused.”
However, he stood by the city, saying it had taken all appropriate steps, handing over to the city’s liability insurer to address the damages.
“We’re hoping to resolve this issue to the homeowner’s satisfaction within the near future,” he said.
In an update to her Facebook post, Schmitt said the matter would be addressed at the next city council meeting.
From Schmitt’s original post:
On May 10th, the Kaukauna Fire Department did a controlled burn of the wetlands lot next to our home.
The fire grew out of control and they burned the side of our house. The fire department listed in their report that they were liable and that the damages were estimated at $10-15k. I was told to start getting quotes.
I received 4 quotes, two at $24k, two at $18k and one of the $18k quotes offered to do it for $15k as we were referred to them and they were offering a promotion at the time.
I told the city that we would go with the $15k quote. All of the quotes were for the full house as our siding and the color are no longer available. I emailed the city’s insurance company a week after I submitted the quotes because they had not responded. They then decided to send out their claims adjuster.
He determined that they are only liable for the damage to the side, regardless of the color match. They valued the loss at $3,900 and then depreciated it due to the color and fading of the siding to $3,000.
