My Billy Cunningham, the great American. Of course, one story that's kind of surprising and shocked many in the Tri State is what's happening in northern Kentucky. A condo there project which appears to be somewhat old, I'd say ten to twenty years or the residents were told on Friday to evacuated to an active landslide, and the residents of Woodland Hills condominium in Southgate don't know what to do
and where to go. And of course, Todd Dykes, you talk about four horsemen of the apocalypse at Channel five. If you take Brian Hamrick and Karen Johnson and John London and Todd Dykes, those are the four horsemen of news apocalypse and Todd Dikes welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. Do you feel like you're part of a of a local news apocalypse at Channel five with those four horsemen of the apocalypse?
What do you think? Well? That is how I praise to be group with those three colleagues. They're amazing and I'm grateful be along for the ride for sure. And I tell you, as you noted, Bill, this situation with this Condomanium complex just came out of the blue to a lot of the folks who live in the affected building, and certainly to me too, So covered it yesterday, and it's just a really difficult situation for sure.
As far as locating it, is that by the old Beverly Hills Supper Club. If you go up four seventy one coming out of the city, where is the Woodland Hills Condo?
Where is that? Yeah, so it's in that vicinity for sure. You know, as you're heading south on four seventy one, I think it's And I travel this way a lot because I live in in northern Kentucky, maybe a half mile a mile a mile or so south on four seventy one before you get to the two seventy five split, So it's in Southgate. You know, you're you're you're peeling off the four seventy one. It's close to Jeff Wiler Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership, and yeah, so it's and it's
a place I'd never been before. So you know, always say to people when I'm covering new stories of if I've never been there, that's probably a good sign because nothing bad. But that's not the case here, unfortunately. For these property owners.
Well, talk about tell us about sanitation District number one. I know on the Kentuki. I guess they were developing an expansion of the sewer project south of one of the condo buildings, which is a good thing. Nonetheless, how did this start yet?
Well, and that's the thing yesterday and the reporting that I that I did it noted that it looks incredibly serene. It was a very peaceful afternoon. You know, it rained a little bit after as we were there, off and on, as it was doing elsewhere. But so, you know, you look at it, it's it I liken it to. It's a condominium complex, but more kind to apartments in some ways. But these individual owners have their condos inside this building
number thirty. That's a collective building. It's twenty eight, thirty and thirty two. And those are the folks who were told that they, you know, advise any to leave on
Friday night. They're getting this letter at their door or by being notified in person, and so maybe gosh, thirty forty fifty feet on the back side of the building, there's a slope that goes down a little hill side and then you see a lot of so obviously that's where the sewer line project has been going in to try to you know, have better flow or whatnot from
Sanitation District one of Northern Kentucky. And that's the agency that handles wastewater and stormwater for the counties in Northern Kentucky. So you know, you can see where the work had been done or because there's a grass seed down and all the hay and the light, so that clearly the neighbors are arguing, and there's been a class action laws we filed this morning by an attorney based in Covington, arguing that the work that was done by Sanitation District
one cruise somehow calls the ground to shift. And now that the language that I'm reading is that there was an active landslide happening both behind on this kind of the sloping hillside heading down toward that project and under this building thirty. So you know, you look at it and you think everything looks completely fine, but clearly you get inside some of the units and you see cracks.
We saw a floor that was basically separating, you know, two or three inch crack, and you see some bowed walls, warped walls, and so forth. So it is Yeah, it's not a good situation for the for the folks that owned those condos, and.
Todd Dykes should Channel five. And it looks like these condos are worth two fifty to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They look like apartment buildings, but they converted to condos with all the fees that might be involved with that. So this is not Charlwick. This is a middle class to upper middle class area and the place looks very safe and very secure. So you observed cracks
and separating floors, many of the issues the neighbors. And then before we get to the sanitation district and maybe their several responsibilities, how were the residents notified that they should evacuate their own homes? How'd that happen?
Well, that was yeah, that was one of the things that seemed so startling. There was a gentleman that we interviewed yesterday, Greg Marshall, very nice man. He and his wife and ironically, if that's the right word, they had just paid off their mortgage a few weeks ago, so that only added to their to spare. So he said, you know that they came home on Friday night where they had been. They came home to a letter on their door, and so like old fashioned ways, you know, hey,
you need to leave. That were at least advising if it wasn't an order, but you know, and he said, he made the comment to me, it's like Friday night. What Who's going to help figure this out? This is kind of wild. So clearly a lot of folks stayed there were I did talk so and it seems like so if you think of this building all, all the twenty thirty thirty two, they're in one building, thirty is the middle part that seems to be the most affected.
And there was a woman yesterday who told me, and she the comment on the story that was on Channel five. You know, she said, I've been crying and crying and crying for the last several days, and her anxiety was through the roof. She said that there have been people in that unit who left on Saturday because they were so concerned. And if I can look at my notes, she made a comment like the one of our neighbors said they were looking down from her window and it
had separated or something. And I'm very quickly, oh gosh, they woke up this quote. They woke up and their window is actually disconnecting from their wall. And this was and so they moved out either Saturday or Sunday, but they quickly bolted premises. But others, you know, they were really like, what do we do? So I will say on that front, and I think it's important to note I had a conversation with Sanitation District number one communications
director Chris Cole. Had known Chris for a while, used to work at NKU, an honest broker. Chris, you know, faced the cameras and just said, you know, we know that there will be issues on down the road, but the most important thing from their advantage point, according to Chris, was to make sure those residents were able to relocate to safety and without a financial hardship. So, you know, and in trying to identify all the needs. If you
have pets, do you have eighty eight compliance issues, et cetera. So, and the one thing that I would just I'm filling this out there if they are residents still that haven't heard this. And it's interesting in today's time and age, if you get an unknown phone number, you want to answer that number. If you're living this building thirty that's the collective known as Building thirty because it's not spam.
It hopefully as a relocation specialist that can help with the process of moving somewhere else temporarily.
Here's a big question, Todd, do show you're ready for the big question? Fire Away Bill Sanitation District number one of Northern Kentucky SDI one. Have they said we will take responsibility, it is our problem. We'll make everybody whole again? Have they said that yet?
Well, I don't know that. That language, you know is obviously a fairly quick interview yesterday, just to understand what was happening and so forth. I will stay and I'm looking at my notes very quickly. They don't think this is going to be a month and months and months type situation. Maybe a month or two to stabilize, put some kind of a pier wall to support the ground that shifted, and get everything back in working order for
the folks hopefully to come back. Now, the repair work inside these condo units and everybody's identifying things all a metal take, I have you know who knows, so you know it's one of those I think that's prioritizing the immediacy of the issue at hand and then let the cards fallow where they may un down the line. Tender will certainly be covering built for sure, So this.
Might be millions and millions and millions of dollars if you have to either clear. And then at this point here we sit on on Tuesday afternoon, thinking Okay, life is good. I look at the story of this one guy who just paid off a student loan debt and he celebrated by getting out a debt of his student loans. So what he did then was by a condo in this project in November, and he's being told now to leave. He's got a cat. It's hard to find a hotel room that'll take a cat. And he said, I have
no family in the area to move to. And he finds a letter from wood Lamping on the doormat when he took his trash out on Wednesday. And I imagine the private law firm has found a deep pocket in the sewer district to go after. But I would think I'm thinking on behalf of the district. Can someone prove it was their work and their work alone that caused the slippage? Was there some other failure?
Well? And it's interesting in reading the class action suit that was filed this morning. Under the facts header, it says, upon information of belief the defendants of undertaking a project note as quote phase two of the Licking River Siphon Conveyence upsizing project. That's quite a bureaucratic title. Adjacent to
the planet's properties. And then it goes on to talk about conducted set excavation and other earth moving activities in a negligent and improper manner and consistent with industry standards, you know, et cetera, et cetera. But this is just in a lawsuit. These are just allegations and assertions, as you know. So, yeah, I'm reading language about sub adjacent and a removal of lateral and subjacent and support and actually looked at a YouTube video. I'm like, what does
that mean? But yeah, so this is going to be a high level lawyering and you know, excavation experts getting into court room.
I think you know Todd Dyson Channel five, I could say, millions and millions of dollars, and the lawyers for the Metropolitan for the School for the Sewardness. You're gonna say, wait a minute, that wasn't us, that was somebody else. When you buy a home, on a hill these things. I bet they have experts on both sides. The experts will fight it out in court with expensive lawyers, and who pays for all.
That well, and I will say, Bill, I think it's important just to get a visualization for your listeners. I thought maybe it would be like out on fifty East and the hillside issues that that he has with these hills. That early car it's been precariously located right on the
edge of it, almost like a cliff. It's not that, it's just, you know, it's a building that looks like it's been there for many years, and it's just this gentle rolling kind of a sloping downward hillside, you know, in the then it goes into some shrubbery, wooded type area. So you know, it wasn't like this, Oh my gosh, you should never have been built here. It seemed pretty
normal to me, you know. So, But to your point, I mean, I told a lot of the folks I talked to yesterday, said, yeah, I live in Northern Kentucky, emerate payer, and you know, s you one of has always been seemingly a outstanding agency, I guess if you will so, But now you know it's going to probably coustant pain points in some pocketbooks all over the northern Kentucky region. If, however, this thing shakes out, we shall see.
And I'm sure that Chris is a good guy. But when the lawyers get involved on the sanitation district, you may be looking at tens of millions of dollars of damages. Yet, and I would assume these condos have no value at this point. Who who could list their condo and say yeah, I'll buy that. And they were selling their two fifty and that's not going to happen.
And that's the thing. You you empathize so much, just property rights and so forth, and you're like, gosh, just the name recognition and the reporting on it and all that. And I was so grateful. Everybody was really lovely yesterday, very kind, you know, And yet I'm also gosh, if this from my house, and this the fell out mentioned earlier, the mister Marshall, he said they loved that place and and just now this and it's like, oh my gosh. So it's you know, you just empathize a lot with
anybody in this situation. Hopefully they get to the bottom of it, they fix it, people get back in and this just be comes yesterday's news. But you know that goes. We'll be on it for a while. It's it's just unfortunate.
Thanks gret. I couldn't live in a place that was slipping down the hill. And yeah, I couldn't. I look at those homes when you come over the big Mac Bridge, look up on your right. I see these beautiful million dollar homes built on a cliff. And you're saying, this is not that circumstance.
It's not. It's not that circumstance, thankfully. So you know, I mean, they're they're from the letters that I've seen in the language from the engineering you know, the engineer who filed the report, whose report was included with a letter that residents got or property owners got on Friday night, talked about contacting a peer wall contractor immediately to be
engaged to get this thing going out. But it said a may quote and may take some time for the contractors to become available and the equipment to the site. You know, so the parts are moving. But you know, now you're into the land of construction experts and are they available and get them out asapp And yeah, it's just yeah, like I say, I think the word is just sort of disheartening, and you hate that this has happened.
And these are really nice people who liked where they lived and now they're having to deal with all the headaches are relocating. And you know, you mentioned a fellow who had the cat I talked to the world yesterday, had five cats. She and her daughter live in have one of the units, and you know, she's like, what am I going to do with these cats? Who's going to so? But but I will say Chris did with
f st One said. Those are all the kinds of things that the compliant or the relocation folks are trying to assess. So hopefully there will be places for people to get to rather quickly and you know, get settled as best they can.
Todd Diykes will be watching tonight The Power of Five. Todd Diykes one of the horsemen of the Apocalypse, along with John London and Carrie Johnson and of course, of course the great Brian Hemery can We'll see what happens down the road. But this is an unbelievable story. No one did anything wrong and suddenly their life is in a paper bag. Shook up. The lawyers are involved, the engineers are involved, the Serra districts involved, plasters, dry walls,
here we go, and now the wood lampings involved. Lawyer up and see what happens. Todd Diykes once again, great reporting and thank you for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Thank you, Todd Well.
I appreciate the opportunity, and again you know you feel for everybody involved here. Hopefully they get it figured out quickly. So have a good afternoon, Bill, good to talk to you.
God bless America. Thank you very much. Let's continue with more. The line becomes available five one, three, seven, four, nine, seven thousand. Bill Cunningham The Great American Live. It's Home of the Reds playing tonight against the Cubs, starting at six oh five. News Radio seven hundred WLW