Michael Payne and Sally Heiple-Payne

Michael Payne and Sally Heiple-Payne have been hit with steep fines for taking matters into their own hands.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Police are seeking fines of $1,500 each against village residents Michael Payne and Sally Heiple-Payne for allegedly removing a manhole cover in the 1500 block of E. Fairmount Ave. during the Aug. 20-21 storm, in violation of an ordinance prohibiting a person from allowing storm water to enter a sanitary sewer, police Lt. Ronald Stefanski said Thursday.

The citations against the couple accuse them of removing the manhole cover early Aug. 21, eight minutes after midnight.

A few minutes later, the couple approached a police officer dispatched to the flooded intersection of Fairmount and Cumberland avenues, according to an incident report released Thursday.

Heiple-Payne told Officer Michael Grass that she and her husband removed the manhole cover so water in the intersection would drain.

They reside in the 5000 block of N. Cumberland Blvd., according to the citations made public Thursday.

Village officials have said the illegal act caused sewage backups in at least a dozen homes. The uncovered manhole shaft leading to the sanitary sewer was discovered Aug. 21.

On the evening of the storm, Payne complained of recurring flooding in a telephone message for Village President Kathleen Pritchard. In a telephone conversation the next day, Payne "talked about taking matters into his own hands," Pritchard recalled in an interview with a police officer included in the incident reports.

The couple was ticketed in response to a Sept. 14 complaint from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. MMSD officials said the village ordinance prohibiting intentional discharges of storm water into sanitary sewers is needed to prevent basement backups.

It was not a good idea to remove that manhole cover.

It's appropriate that the couple is being held accountable for their actions. What they did was in violation of an ordinance. They likely are responsible for their neighbors' flooded basements.

However, the homes in this neighborhood have flooded repeatedly. They aren't to blame for all the sewage backups.

MMSD has a problem that it needs to address. The flooding is unacceptable. No taxpayer should have to put up with sewage flowing into their homes when there's a bit of rain.

Because the buck stops with him, I think Tom Barrett should pay the fines.