FLOODING INFORMATION - Mayhew Cabin with John Brown's Cave

The following information is provided by Cathleen Van Winkle.

It should be noted that the dismissal of the 2020 lawsuit filed against the City of Nebraska City by Mayhew’s pro bono attorney was the result of the loss of that lawyer due to health issues. The dismissal had nothing to do with the merits of the case – foundations are required to have representation because they can’t represent themselves. The loss of the lawyer was an utter tragedy because the case against the city was strong. Not only is the city draining negligently, Mayhew had a strong case for inverse condemnation.

You can click here to watch a video about the tragedy that has unfolded at the Mayhew Cabin with John Brown’s Cave museum site or you can continue reading.

The truncated version of the story is that the City of Nebraska City has systematically destroyed the Mayhew Cabin with John Brown’s Cave site by the following voluntary and negligent actions:

Directing many acres/massive amounts of water into a ravine on the Mayhew Cabin Museum site via storm sewer inlets (amounts outside of normal practice/industry standards). At the onset, this drainage was negligent because the ravine was NOT connected to a watercourse. The ravine was DRY when Highway 2 was constructed (just south of the Mayhew Cabin) in 1938, so dry in fact, that the ravine was simply filled for construction of the highway, and no culvert under the highway was deemed necessary. The City of Nebraska City is also negligently draining their entire east adjacent “city shop” property onto the Mayhew Cabin site either through tubing into the ravine or directly over the bank of the ravine, causing massive amounts of erosion. Ironically, one of the pipes has eroded the side of the ravine to such a degree, water has created a man-sized “cave.”
Failure to maintain a drainage tube (known as the “active tube”) that starts at the end of the ravine on the Mayhew Cabin site. The active tube runs under the museum building and connects to a junction under the sidewalk south of the museum site. As a result of a lack of routine maintenance (and because the city never installed a grate over the opening to the tube) Mayhew soil, street debris dropped onto the site from the storm sewer inlets, and plant material clog the tube periodically which caused flooding on several occasions. These flooding events damaged the tunnel and ultimately destroyed the walkway that leads from the tunnel exit enclosure.
Not filing an easement and never implementing any type of erosion protection measures to prevent erosion. The Mayhew Cabin property has lost over one-half acre of property due to erosion. Widening of the ravine now threatens the school, depot, and church located along the west bank of the ravine . . . these structures will ultimately fall into the ravine.
Unabated erosion has caused trees to fall out of the ravine (which destroyed the little cemetery and caused a dead tree to fall onto the church). More severely, it has caused the tunnel exit enclosure to become structurally unsound and fail! All of the soil under the tunnel exit enclosure is gone – the concrete enclosure is hanging out over open air with nothing left to support it. The tunnel (including the tunnel exit enclosure) was a highlight for patrons of all ages visiting the site. Because of the damage, no one has been able to use the tunnel since 2013 when the tunnel exit enclosure started to collapse.
Failure in drainage design: Per a UNO Civil Engineering Professor, the active tube and junction are significantly undersized which was a failure of the City of Nebraska to design the system properly. Although the system was already undersized, they added another drainage tube (known as “the 1995 tube” that runs near the west edge of the museum site) to the already overtaxed system. Additionally, they allowed four new houses along 2nd Corso to connect their sewer lines to the 1995 tube! This has resulted in a series of raw sewage backups in the museum building, which the City of Nebraska City ultimately denied responsibly for.
Abandoning another drainage tube (known as the “abandoned tube”). The abandoned tube failed and collapsed (for reasons unknown), and the 1995 tube was probably installed as a result. However, the city did not follow best practices and cap off both ends and fill the tube with soil and/or concrete. Rather, the city just left the tube to continue to collapse which caused a sinkhole on the museum site. However, more importantly, the abandoned tube connects to the active tube under the Mayhew Cabin museum building. It is filled with soil – soil that supports the museum building. Because the active tube becomes overwhelmed because it is undersized (and because the later junction is undersized), when water backs up in the active tube, it also backs up into the abandoned tube. When water eventually flows successfully down the active tube to the junction, the water leaving the abandoned tube pulls soil out of the abandoned tube and carries it to the junction. That lost soil is replaced with more soil from above. This continual movement and removal of soil has caused the museum building to sink significantly to the northeast (14 inches at one point!), and possibly become structurally unsound. The museum building has sunk to such a degree from its original elevation that the building takes on water and can flood during rain events. Because the building flooded during the Memorial Day 2019 weekend rain event, the flooring is damaged beyond repair, and the building has significant mold growth. Because of the presence of mold, the building can no longer be utilized for its intended purpose as a museum because it is unsafe for employees and patrons.

When confronted with these allegations, the City of Nebraska City denied ALL responsibility and refused to help the Mayhew Cabin. A city representative even claimed that the drainage on the Mayhew Cabin site belonged to the Mayhew Cabin Foundation and NOT the city when the drainage is CLEARLY part of the city’s infrastructure. The city denied responsibility again when a PSTC claim was filed. Therefore, the Mayhew Cabin Foundation had no choice but to file a lawsuit, which was filed in February of 2020 by a pro bono attorney (because the Mayhew Cabin is a foundation and cannot represent itself). The city refused to supply any useful information during the Discovery process, claiming to have no knowledge of the drainage on the Mayhew Cabin site, no drainage maps, and no drainage maintenance plan. How can you responsibly maintain drainage in the city if you don’t know what you have? The city even refused to admit that they were directing water onto the museum site. Sadly, Mayhew lost its lawyer late in 2021 due to health issues. A search ensued for a new lawyer, but we could not find another lawyer to take the case. Therefore, the case was dismissed by Judge Smith due to lack of representation. Mayhew can’t file another lawsuit because the statute of limitations will not allow it. The Mayhew Cabin Foundation cannot re-open due to significant damage and unsafe conditions, has lost its revenue source, and is facing permanent closure as a result. Without the city removing or updating the drainage on the Mayhew Cabin site to industry standards, there is no point in attempting to repair any damaged structures because flooding and erosion will continue. It is an utter tragedy. Rather than supporting what was the second most visited museum in Nebraska City, Nebraska City turned its back on the museum, refused to take ANY responsibility, and effectively killed an important, unique, and treasured historic site.

During the long process, I discovered that before I became a board member, similar destructive flooding occurred on the site in the spring of 2007. The city was contacted by a previous Director of the museum site. Mayor Adelung put Dan Giitinger in charge of the issue, and the city helped the Mayhew Cabin Foundation file a FEMA claim to pay for the damage. Mr. Giitinger signed a FEMA document stating that the “active tube” is a “city maintained tube.” This document proves that the city lied to us by denying ownership of their infrastructure. The flooding situation also gave constructive notice to the city that there was a serious drainage issue on the Mayhew Cabin site, but they chose to do nothing to rectify it other than filing documents with FEMA to pay for the mess they actually created. Unfortunately, the previous Director did not realize, nor did FEMA, that the “creek” in the ravine was not a natural water source . . . it was (and is) artificial drainage.

I also discovered that the City of Nebraska City sold an irregular parcel of property where the brick building (now the museum building) is located to George Rowe in 1962. An easement was written into the deed for ALL utility services, including drainage. Therefore, the active tube and the now abandoned tube were already on the site when the city sold it to Rowe. Yet the city now claims to know nothing of the drainage on the site. Subsequent to the purchase, Rowe constructed the brick building a few years later.

When the city constructed the 1995 tube, they filed an easement which includes the junction where the 1995 tube and the active tube meet. Even though there is an easement for the 1995 tube and junction, the city claims to have no knowledge and no responsibility. Suddenly, it is not part of their infrastructure . . .

Alas, without our day in court, Mayhew won’t have the opportunity to present this evidence to a judge. We need public support to pressure the City of Nebraska City to do the right and responsible thing and fix the drainage on the Mayhew Cabin site and help us repair the damage that they caused!

The Mayhew Cabin is expected to be closed permanently unless a miracle occurs.