Linn County man wants boat back after flood demolition

A Linn County resident who wanted to salvage his boat from his flood-damaged home got an unpleasant surprise last week.  It appears he no longer owns his own boat by taking the county's buyout money.

Michael O'Connor accepted payment for his unrepairable home at 5904 Wilder Dr. S.W. near Bertram last fall and knew that the home and garage were on the county's demolition list.  But O'Connor wanted to save a 20-foot speed boat that was stuck inside a garage with a collapsed roof.  He was hoping to do that during the demolition itself.  But that's when he ran into the problem.

It's a question that was bound to happen with all the flood demolition and buyouts.  If you take a buyout, but leave something valuable behind, who owns it when the demolition machinery arrives?

O'Connor was expecting to get a call from the county before the heavy equipment rumbled in.  But the demolition happened last week and he only heard from a neighbor afterwards.  O'Conner said he needed to be there because he couldn't rescue his boat without help.

“The garage roof was lying on top of it and it was impossible to take out of there without more heavy equipment coming down to lift the garage off the top of the boat,” O'Connor said.

But the boat, a 1992 model and trailer worth about $5,000, didn't get crunched up with the debris.  Taube Excavation, the county's demolition contractor, saved it intact and towed it to the company's rural Marion address instead of the landfill.  O'Connor said it took him a few days to locate the boat but when he went out to retrieve it, he got surprise number two.

O'Connor said the demolition company told him to “either go to court and spend all my time and money that way or give them $1,000 (for the boat).”

Les Beck, Linn County Planning and Zoning Director, says the buyout paperwork O'Connor signed last fall clearly states personal property must be removed before demolition at the owner's expense.  After the buyout sale closes, the home and anything in it belongs to the county.  And by contract, the demolition company the county hired can salvage anything it wants.  O'Connor admits he probably didn't read all the details in the mound of paperwork.

“I skimmed it, got the gist of it,” O'Connor said, but admitted he didn't see anything about salvage rights.

Jessica Wallis of Marion spoke on behalf of Taube Excavation, her family's business. She said the incident with O'Connor is the first of its kind since the business started demoing houses.

“We have not had other complaints like this,” Wallis said. “Anyone who has read the contract understands… It's not an issue.”

Wallis said that even though Taube Excavation has legal rights to items recovered from flooded properties, she feels its offer to sell the boat back to O'Connor for one-quarter of its value was more than reasonable.

“The boat was trashed when we found it. It was dirty,” Wallis said. “My brother spent hours cleaning and working on it, and we were willing to give it back at less than half the price.”

Beck admits it was his oversight that led to O'Connor not getting a call about his old home's demolition.  But Beck added that by the time the demolition occurred, April 12

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, O'Connor didn't legally own the home or its contents and it was too late for him to remove his boat.

By Dave Franzman, KCRG-TV