Weld school district blames landscaping firm for $1.6M in damages

MILLIKEN — Weld County School District RE-J5 claims that a faulty irrigation system installed in 2022 is to blame for $1.6 million in damages to its Milliken administration building. 

The district, along with the Colorado School Districts Self Insurance Pool, is suing Pennsylvania-based BrightView Landscape Services Inc. in hopes that a court will force the landscaper to reimburse the plaintiffs for the cost of repairs. 

BrightView, representatives of which did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, and Weld County School District RE-J5, a small rural district of about 3,900 students that primarily serves children from Milliken and Johnstown, entered into a landscape services agreement for the district headquarters on Centennial Drive in March 2022, according to the lawsuit.

By August of that year, the district began investigating damage to the administration building. 

“TruE Consulting Inc. inspected the property and surrounding property and determined that the damage to the exterior and interior components of the property was caused by irrigation water from the irrigation operations in 2022 for the irrigation system that surrounded the property,” the complaint said. 

The inspector “determined that the cause of the water damage, water staining, and deterioration to the exterior and interior components of the property was a result of improperly adjusted irrigation heads which routinely directed irrigation water against the property weekly throughout the 2022 watering season,” according to the lawsuit. 

Weld County School District RE-J5, court documents show, has already paid nearly $641,000 for building repairs and expects the full job to cost about $1 million more. 

The lawsuit is Colorado School Districts Self Insurance Pool, Weld County School District RE-J5 v. BrightView Landscape Services Inc., case number 2024CV30557 filed June 24 in Weld County District Court.

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