Tucson Unified School District is asking the city and county to step up and pay for Tucson Highs new football field.
TUSD says the city is partly to blame after it flooded because of monsoonal storms.
It seems to be a finger pointing battle between the City of Tucson and TUSD - who is ultimately responsible for the flood that left Tucson High Schools football field - under water?
District officials claim the city and county didn't maintain a stream near the school which caused the field to flood.
Andy Dinauer with Pima County Flood Control District was called in to check things out in a statement to KGUN9 - he said there was nothing wrong with the drainage system.
"It was very evident that the grate inlets around the perimeter of the field had become clogged by surface run-off debris that had come from the Tucson High campus and/or the West University neighborhood/UA/6th street area."
City of Tucson attorney, Mike Rankin says the city received claims on Friday that could turn into a lawsuit. In a statement he says,
"The city did make efforts to work with TUSD over the last several months to try to resolve the issues relating to Tucson High, but TUSD chose to move forward by filing the claims. The city does not believe that it has any responsibility for the flood event that is the subject of the claims."
At Tuesday night's board meeting - the potential lawsuit was not brought up.
But a community member who spoke during a call to the audience brought up the issue. In turn, Kristel Ann Foster said the goal of the city, TUSD and superintendent was to get this field up and running again.
"I just want to acknowledge that goal - it was tragic what happened this school year but we all have our eye on graduation day at Tucson High," said Foster.
TUSD sent a statement to KGUN9, stating:
TUSD, the City and the County have been in regular communication to collaborate on the best and most efficient ways to restore the Tucson High School field to safe, usable condition, with the goal of having it available for Tucson High Magnet School’s graduation. We have every reason to believe that those collaborative discussions and efforts will be successful.
TUSD and its insurance carrier, which provides property coverage to TUSD, filed Notices of Claim with the City and County related to the flood damage to the Tucson High athletic facilities. The fact that these notices were filed does not necessarily mean that any lawsuit will ever be filed.
The District and its insurance carrier were required to file Notices of Claim in order to keep that avenue of recovery available, if, for some reason in the future, that becomes necessary.
The field is expected to be renovated by graduation 2018.
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