Laura Reason felt the floor of her house shake and heard the windows rattle. Outside, a piece of heavy construction equipment pounded the ground just a few feet from her home on Euclid Avenue just south of Carmichael Hall.
"I ran outside and yelled ‘You're shaking my house!' and they just turned," she said.
The noise and vibrations marked the start of Ball State University's geothermal heat pump system project. The $65 million plan, formally announced by Sen. Richard Lugar in a visit to the university on May 2009, is said to be the largest of its kind in the country and will eventually save Ball State $2 million per year.
"The pounding went on for days," Reason said. "It knocked off pictures from the wall. It was hours and hours, day after day."
Reason is one of two residents on the street who are seeking compensation for damage to their homes. The other, former Ball State employee Jane Wiley, lives next door to Reason.
"I was standing out back on the sidewalk by the porch and [the ground] was going up and down," she said. "There was a man just behind that fence and I went ‘What are you doing?' And he just looked at me and walked away."
The Euclid Street claims are among just "two or three" complaints concerning the project that the university has heard about, Jim Lowe, director of engineering and operations, said.
Wiley wrote a letter to President Jo Ann Gora, expressing her concern with the damage in her home and the contractor's future use of heavy equipment.
In response, university Treasurer Randy Howard wrote to Wiley. His account squares in general with the facts as given by the homeowners:
- The pounding came from a "vibratory roller," used to tamp down earth after a trench was dug to place some of the pipe for the project.
- The contractor, Messer Construction of Indianapolis, or its subcontractors are responsible for any damage, according to the school.
- Mark Wallischeck, of Messer referred the homeowners to Messer's insurance company, Selective Insurance, which inspected the homes and said the contractors were not to blame for any damage.
Howard said there wasn't much the school could do.
"While Selective Insurance did not find a link between the damage at your house and the vibratory roller used on Ball State's geothermal project, we have asked the company to refrain from using vibration in areas adjacent to private property owners," Howard said in a letter to Wiley. "We do this not because we believe one party or the other, but simply as a courtesy to our neighbors that have expressed concern."
Howard suggested the homeowners consult with legal counsel if they wanted to pursue the matter further, but Wiley said she is busy taking care of her disabled husband and doesn't have the energy to pursue it further.
Geothermal Project Update:
-The installation process is going according to schedule. The bore hole drilling will be completed by August and construction of the north district energy station will begin in May.
-The university expects the first phase of the project to be completed in the summer of 2011, meaning by fall 2011 all buildings North of Riverside Avenue will have the new heating and cooling system.
-The Marilyn K. Glick Center for Glass will open fall 2010 and will be the first building to use a geothermal system.
-Ball State is still working to raise the funds to continue with the second phase of the project — the installation on the south side of Riverside.
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