MANDAN - In 45 minutes, 9 inches of mud and sewage seeped into the finished basement of Pam Hartwig's home. A professional cleaning company spent 12 hours pumping out the muck.

It took nine weeks for her and other Mandan property owners affected by the May 25 sewer backup to get answers from the city on who would pay for the damage.

Mandan City attorney Malcolm Brown announced a trust fund set up for property owners to submit claims at the Mandan City Commission meeting Tuesday. Property owners can fill out forms absolving all the parties involved from fault, and they will work out a settlement. Within a day or two of making the agreement, a check will be issued, Brown said.

"If they don't want to settle, they don't have to," Brown said.

"We're glad it's over with, so we can rebuild," Hartwig said. She will see what the city has to offer, but will only accept a fair offer, she said.

The money will be paid by an insurance company, not the city, Mayor Ken LaMont said.

Hartwig's daughter was living in the basement, and it destroyed some of her personal belongs. She has to refinish the basement.

"It interrupted our summer," she said.

The mess was caused by an abandoned storm sewer that filled with water during construction on Collins Avenue. It caused mud and sewage to back up into the sanitary sewer system of 14 homes along south Collins Avenue.

Some homeowners had a foot or more of sewage in their basements. All property owners were required to use professional cleaning services because of the type of material that flooded their basements. Many cleaning bills were more than $10,000.

There are four entities involved in the liability negotiations: the city, Strata, Interstate Engineering, and United Crane and Excavating. The North Dakota Insurance Reserve represents the city.

In other commission news:

3 The commission approved a liquor license for Wade Schultz for the old Tree City Bar. He will bring the bar up to current building an fire code and rename it the Sportsman's Lounge.

3 Four Renaissance Zone projects approved Tuesday give new life to the former spot of Marv's Hardware and the site of the demolished farmer's elevator.

The Marv's Hardware building will be renovated, and then First National Pawn will move from its existing location on Main Street to this location.

Leading Technology Development, LLC, will build two buildings at the site of the former elevator. One is potentially for an O'Reilly Auto Parts Store, and the other is for a Family Dollar store.

The city approved an agreement for a joint impound facility with the City of Bismarck. The city of Mandan would pay 25 percent of the cost of construction, up to $75,000, and then 25 percent of utilities. The city could use it for eight years.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)