County risk manager reports three water‑damage incidents, contractor admits fault on one

Kane County's risk manager told the Human Services Committee on Feb. 11 that three water‑damage incidents over recent months have led staff to pursue remediation and insurer engagement.

David Larson reported a mid‑December sprinkler failure that saturated control equipment in the sheriff's office indoor range and two January incidents linked to extreme cold that caused flooding in separate buildings. "There are, 3 incidents I do wanna just verbally inform the committee about that, we're working on," he said.

Larson said the county is working with its umbrella insurer to assess recoverable losses and that, in one case, the HVAC contractor "verbally admitted faults, and so we're working to get that sorted out." He added the county will require repairs appropriate to the specialized nature of the range facility.

Board members pressed on operational responses and accountability. One member asked whether there are ways to shut off flow or install monitoring in large suppression systems; Larson said flow monitors exist but cannot safely shut off fire‑suppression water, and explained that large building systems act like interconnected tanks that require clear valve knowledge.

The committee asked risk management to provide written after‑action reports for each incident describing causes and proposed preventive steps; Larson agreed to present those reports at the next meeting. He also confirmed the county's self‑insured retention for water‑damage losses is $100,000 per incident.