Sammamish Deputy City Manager Pete Butkus said this week that water damage to the Kellman Mansion caused during this year’s Fourth of July celebrations would cost less than $1,000 to repair, and denied that the city was trying to keep news of the damage from the public.

In recent weeks The Reporter has received a number of e-mails from Sammamish citizens, suggesting that senior officials were being “hush hush” about the damage to what is city property, caused when city staff turned on the water at the residence as a precaution during the annual fireworks spectacular.

According to one resident, a figure of $1 million worth of damage is doing the rounds among inquisitive citizens.

Butkus said the city was paying about $300 a month in energy bills for the unoccupied property when in 2007 he made the decision to disconnect electricity and water service.

The residence was being heated to 55 degrees, to prevent the pipes from freezing.

In July of 2008, the city turned the water back on for the fireworks, and experienced no problems. But the following July, when the water was turned on, it was revealed that pipes had cracked during the previous year, most likely due to the water freezing and expanding.

The upstairs master bedroom was flooded, and some damage was caused to the roof of the garage below.

Butkus conceded that this was his error.

“I made a mistake, I should have drained the pipes,” he said.

Butkus said that the city’s maintenance and operations crew is planning to put in shut-off valves for the second floor plumbing, so in the future the city could “charge” the system when it needed water available, and then drain it to prevent future pipe breakage.

Estimating what the incident would cost the city and its taxpayers, Butkus said “two workers, two valves, two pieces of drywall and about two hours. Under $1,000 for materials and labor.”

“I did not see any damage to the upstairs from the water, so we are going with pipe repair/valve installation, replace two sheets of 4 x 8 drywall in the garage ceiling, and labor,” he said.

“Now, if we hired outside plumber and drywall work, it would be a bit more. Since this is maintenance/repair and not new construction, we can do it with our own crew.”

Butkus told The Reporter he stands behind his original decision to turn off the heating units to save money.

The Kellman Mansion occupies an undefined place in the city’s recent history.

During building of the current Sammamish City Hall in 2005/06, the owner of the mansion, Sanford Kellman, bothered by the dust and noise of the construction, offered his property for sale.

With an eye to perhaps being able to use the property for a maintenance storage facility, the city purchased the house and 9.37 acres of land in August of 2006 for $3.25 million.

The motion authorizing the sale, which was carried 6 – 0, also allowed Sanford Kellman to remain on the property for four months, rent free.

In 2008, however, city studies found the site not appropriate for a storage facility, and built the current maintenance facility site at the Noelke

property on 244th Avenue NE.

During that decision, council noted “with the new Town Center plan moving forward, there may now be a higher and better future use for the Kellman property than a maintenance facility” and “there has been on-going input from the community that they would rather see the Kellman property used for something other than a new maintenance facility.”

What that use is remains to be seen.