Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
CLOVIS — The city of Clovis has paid out $183,000 to settle complaints against it since Jan. 1, records show.
The city has paid out 12 claims, with allegations ranging from damage caused by garbage trucks and sewer backups to traffic accidents.
The information was provided in response to a public records request filed by The Eastern New Mexico News.
The largest settlement paid so far this year was $75,713 to five individuals involved in a vehicle accident with a city bus.
Lendon Tye Odell, Virginia Lykins-Odell, Logan Lykins, Christian Lykins and Jenna Nead suffered personal injuries and property damage due to “negligent driving” by a city employee on March 15, 2014, records show.
The city’s insurance company paid the claim.
The city’s insurance company also paid $50,000 to Joanne King following a flood on Sept. 24, 2014, records show.
King was driving to the zoo to pick up her son when her vehicle was “suddenly washed off of the northwest side of the roadway and came to rest in a flooded culvert,” according to a notice of tort claim.
She was forced to evacuate the vehicle on zoo property and was soon “swept underwater and into an uncovered drainage tunnel,” the claim reads.
“As Ms. King was getting washed through the drainage tunnel, she believed she was going to drown to death.”
She suffered injuries to her ankles, knees, back, chest, wrists, hands, neck and head.
City Manager Tom Phelps said the zoo has since made property improvements intended to prevent such an accident from happening again.
Other claims paid include:
• $16,382.90 to Scott Wildenhain for damages due to sewer backup.
• $10,000 to former city employee David Bryant for an Americans with Disabilities Act violation. Phelps and Bryant declined to discuss the ADA issue, but Phelps said it “has been taken care of.”
