P-J file photo

The city of Jamestown and its insurance carrier are suing one of its contractors for $2 million in damages.

In a court filing received Feb. 15 in Chautauqua County Supreme Court in Mayville, the city and New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal filed the suit in an attempt to recoup damages from water damages to the police and fire departments as well as other spaces inside city hall. There have been no court dates set, in part because the pleading has been filed electronically and is still waiting for review and approval by the Chautauqua County Clerk’s Office.

Once it is reviewed, it can be accepted for filing by the county Clerk’s Office.

That also means there have been no responses filed yet by officials from Patterson-Stevens Inc., the company hired to renovate Tracy Plaza and convert it into a public garden area.

The city and its insurance carrier allege the company didn’t protect the integrity of Tracy Plaza and the areas underneath. A heavy rainstorm in September 2017 resulted in ankle-deep water pouring into the Jamestown Police Department, damaging equipment, files, computers and radios. The police department was closed to the public for months, with anyone who needed police for non-emergency matters forced to call ahead for alternate access to the building.

The city’s lawsuit alleges Patterson-Stevens employees didn’t adequately protect the deck and areas below despite warning of heavy rains, failed to seal and protect the deck from rain water intrusion throughout the length of the project, didn’t use tarp that shielded the deck and areas below from water intrusion and didn’t properly plan for water protection for the project as they were required to do.

The lawsuit also states the company failed “to properly train or supervise their employees to protect the roof and exposed open joint spaces from rain water intrusion during the course of the project; in performing their work in a shoddy, unworkmanlike, non-professional manner; in failing to take any reasonable temporary water protection measures to ensure that rain water would not intrude (into) the building despite notice of a potential rain storm … and in negligently installing tarps that were slightly raised to pool water in distinct areas to be pumped off which was insufficient and inadequate to prevent rain water and dust intrusion.”