Gasconade County Republican

K. J. Unnerstall Construction Co. has encountered some difficulty when putting in the new sewer lines at City Park recently.

After calling Missouri One-Call to have existing utilities marked, the company still hit buried power lines in at least six places. The lines that were damaged were not in marked locations. By calling Missouri One-Call, Unnerstall gave notice to utility providers that their lines needed to be marked. The lines that were damaged were hit in unmarked locations.  One line was hit more than 15 feet away from its marked location. None of the lines were encased in conduit.

At last week’s Board of Aldermen meeting, Kurt Unnerstall , owner of the company, addressed the group as to who would assume liability for the damage.

“I bid this job to put pipe in the ground,” Unnerstall told the board. “My crew has spent a lot of time trying to find electrical lines that aren’t marked. That will be expense to me that I had not included in the bid.” He noted his company would repair broken lines that were within  two feet of the marked locations. In this instance, Unnerstall told the city he felt they should make the repairs.  

The City Park was developed in the 1970s. Over the years improvements have been made by the Park Board and Saddle and Bridle Club whose arena is within the confines of the park.

Much of this work was done by volunteers who didn’t always mark their work on the city’s map. In some cases, they may have encountered rock, and detoured the line around the obstacle without noting the change of location. 

The aldermen voted three to one to have the city repair its own lines. Ward 2 Alderman Ed Adams voted no.

Gerald’s Public Works Director Brad Landwehr says his department was unable to find updated maps showing the current electrical lines in the park. He hopes that, weather permitting, he and his crew - plus a volunteer electrician - will be able to have the lines spliced and covered Friday. Until then, a few areas of the park are without power, including the horse arena, the ball field concession stand and the pavilion near the rest rooms. While power was cut to some of the lights along the walking trail, that line was repaired immediately due to the high use of the trail.

Eventually, Landwehr hopes that all electrical lines in the park will be run through conduit and the city’s map updated with exact locations.

In an attempt to avoid another such problem, Unnerstall also informed the board, through Cochran Engineering representative Jeff Huck, that a problem was anticipated with force main. Unnerstall said that he had been notified by Landwehr that the city was not able to locate that water line near the sanitary sewer main two.

Unnerstall wrote in an email, “KJU will assume no liability of any damage to any City’s utilities in this area, unless they are located and marked by the City.