Benefit planned for flooded residents.
Local musicians Nina Hart and Matt Deason have dealt with a lot of crap in the last year. Literally.
Last winter, flooding from a backed-up city sewer line ruined Hart's home and almost everything in it [Outtakes, June 28:
].
Enter good friend and fellow musician Ross Hamlin, who recently offered to produce a benefit concert to
offset some of the costs of Hart's destroyed home. The benefit, planned for
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Oct. 15, couldn't be coming at a better time.
Last month Hart and Deason settled a lawsuit with the City of Santa Fe for $55,000, a figure below the $75,000 they hoped for and even further from the estimated $100,000 in damages to Hart's home. The city maintains it is bound by a state law that limits how much money it can reimburse in such matters.
"The settlement was totally an insult to anyone who has ever been through anything like this," Deason says. "It shows the city does not care about people and cares more about red tape."
Called the "Pink Boot-a-Thon," after a pair of Hart's colorful clodhoppers that survived the slurry, the benefit will take place at Club Alegria.
"I felt so powerless about what was going on. We signed petitions, called our counselors, but it didn't do anything at all," Hamlin says. "So I raised the idea of a benefit to Nina and she thought it would be a good idea."
So far, Hamlin says 10 acts will play the benefit and KBAC DJ Honey Harris will emcee. The concert will last from 4 pm until midnight; organizers are asking concertgoers for a donation.
Mayor David Coss, who heard from Nina Hart at a recent community meeting, says he has received a report on sewage issues from the city's Wastewater Management Division and will be reviewing the document. Coss says he was struck by Hart's assertion that city employees treated her impersonally after losing her home.
"I want to understand what state law says, what the city insurance policy is, what homeowner's insurance can really be expected to cover and what kind of maintenance schedule the city should be trying to achieve," Coss says. "It's a really tragic occurrence to lose one's home."
Regardless of how much money it raises, for Hart and Deason, the concert will invariably provide some much-needed relief to what has been a trying last few months.
Says Hart: "Finally, we have something to look forward to."
