Disabled Wings masseur gets $5,000 water bill
Posted: Friday June 05, 1998 01:21 PM
GROSSE POINTE WOODS, Michigan (AP) -- The family of disabled Detroit Red Wings masseur
Sergei Mnatsakanov has a delinquent $5,544 water bill to this Detroit
suburb.
The big tab came to the attention of the Grosse Pointe Woods City Council
during a May 18 meeting, when the members received a list of 27 delinquent
water customers, the Detroit Free Press said Friday.
City Administrator Peter Thomas said the problem dates to July 1997, a
month after Mnatsakanov and Wings defenseman Vladimir
Konstantinov were badly injured in a limousine crash.
Thomas said the city found several leaks at the house after a water clerk
noticed that the Mnatsakanov bill was abnormally large.
Rather than billing the household for actual use, the clerk sent an
estimated bill based on past use because of concerns that the meter reading
might not be correct.
Public works employees later found some faulty, running toilets, Thomas
said. He said the meter was working properly. The leaks continued and water
use continued to be high through September, Thomas said.
Mnatsakanov was in the hospital then and did not return home until six
months after the wreck, paralyzed in both legs and one arm.
Water consumption at the home has since returned to normal.
Mnatsakanov's son, Max, said the family had held off paying the bill
because it still believed the meter was faulty, or there was some other
problem.
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