Lawsuit seeks damages for City Hall roofing job

GIBSON CITY — Gibson City is suing Mahomet-based Copper Creek Contractors and its owner, Jeremy Janes, along with a dissolved roofing company he once partially owned and its successor company, over a botched roofing job that caused water to leak into City Hall and the adjoining police department building and vehicle garage, costing the city more than half a million dollars in damages.

Attorney Justin Brunner filed a 12-count lawsuit in Ford County Circuit Court on Friday, Aug. 29, seeking monetary damages in excess of $50,000 for each count, plus interest charges, to recover the city’s estimated losses totaling at least $582,490.

The 34-page civil complaint names four defendants:

— Copper Creek Contractors Corp., which was hired by the city in August 2022 to replace the flat roofs above City Hall and the adjoining police department and garage for $360,000.

— Janes, a Mahomet resident who has been the sole owner of Copper Creek Contractors since its incorporation in May 2022.

— Mid-West Coatings Group Inc., a short-lived roofing company that performed the roof replacement as a subcontractor for Copper Creek Contractors and for which Janes was a 33% shareholder.

— And Midwest C&A Inc., a firm doing business as MW Roofing and Midwest Roofing that is believed to be “a continuation” of the now-dissolved Midwest Coatings, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit said Janes promised to install a long-lasting, extensively upgraded, warrantied roof over each of the three attached buildings when he made his pitch to the city council prior to its approval of hiring Copper Creek Contractors to do the job. However, shortly after Midwest Coatings’ installation of the new roof — which utilized a “polyurea spray-foam roofing system” — it began to leak.

According to the complaint, only later — after a series of repeated leaks — did Janes reveal to city officials that the spray-foam technique used on the roof was “experimental.” Despite an apologetic Janes’ promises that he would replace the roof in spring 2024 at no further cost to the city, the work was not completed, and the city ended up hiring another company — Urbana-based Bash Pepper Roofing Co. — to replace it instead.

“Copper Creek’s, Janes’ and Mid-West Coatings’ work on the Gibson City roofs has been described by another roofing contractor as an absolute trainwreck,” the lawsuit said, “both because the spray foam was a bad choice and because so many of the details were done wrong.”

The lawsuit added that Janes did not disclose his 33% ownership interest in Mid-West Coatings or that the company was incorporated just three months earlier and was not yet licensed to operate as a roofing business by the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation.

“Copper Creek and Janes omitted to tell Gibson City any of these facts while trying to induce Gibson City to pay more than double the original budget from public funds for an allegedly extensive upgrade that was actually just an experiment,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said Janes first offered on Aug. 8, 2022, to make upgrades to the roofs above City Hall, the police department and the vehicle garage for a $172,000 fee. After the council’s approval of that project, though, Janes recommended and persuaded the council on Aug. 22, 2022, to pursue a more extensive — and expensive — roofing project instead — one that would involve a “complete tear-off” and the use of the “spray-foam” technology.

The council was swayed, in part, by Janes’ new offer of a 35-year warranty on the roofing products used — instead of a 20- or 30-year warranty under his initial proposal — to go along with a two-year workmanship warranty and 15-year polyurea application warranty, the lawsuit noted. Another factor was Janes’ claim that an inspection had revealed that more work was needed to address what he described as extensive water damage and wood rot, the lawsuit said.

After the city wrote Janes two checks — for $175,000 before the start of the project on Aug. 30, 2022, and for $185,000 on Nov. 14, 2022, after the project was completed — the new roof began leaking by spring 2023, the lawsuit said. Repeated leaking occurred over the next several months, soaking the interior ceiling tiles and flooring of City Hall and the police department. Janes, whose attempts to temporarily fix the leaks were unsuccessful, eventually told city officials in early December 2023 that he would replace the sprayfoam roof with a 50-year rubber roof — at no further cost to the city — the next spring.

“Further inspection revealed large cracks in the spray-foam roofing, areas where water was pooling on the surface of the roof and running into cracks, and layers of roofing materials that had separated or peeled away from the roof,” the lawsuit said.

In February 2024, Janes attended a meeting of the city council, telling aldermen that he was “not happy with or proud of the work,” the lawsuit said. Janes noted that there was an ongoing “debate over whether the roof problems were due to the material itself or the way it was installed.” For the first time, Janes also “admitted that the sprayfoam roof was applied with an experimental technique,” the lawsuit noted.

Despite an “ongoing dispute” between Copper Creek Contractors’ insurer and Mid-West Coatings’ insurer, Janes’ promised: “I am going to fix the roof regardless, even if it’s out of my own pocket,” according to the lawsuit.

“I will do anything to take care of this, with no money for you out of pocket,” Janes reportedly told the council, according to the lawsuit. “I am going to replace it with a 50-year rubber roof, but it’s going to take a full restructure redo. We are going to have to chainsaw everything off the roof. I am ashamed from the bottom of my heart, but you have my word I will make it right.”

The lawsuit said inspections of the roof revealed a number of issues, including that it was “not an appropriate roofing system for the subject roofing areas” and was “highly susceptible to failure if installation (was) not performed correctly.” Also, the lawsuit said, Mid-West Coatings failed to properly prepare the substrate before the spray-foam layer was applied; failed to properly apply layers of foam and the top-coating in a uniform manner, causing “ponding”; failed to ensure that the foam was not applied too thickly, causing excess heat buildup … and an inability to handle thermal stress. including during cold weather; and failed to property apply the top coating layer, causing “large sections of that supposedly protective layer to delaminate or separate from the roof and allow water to migrate into the roofing system below.”

The “failed experiment,” the lawsuit said, caused the city to suffer “substantial damages,” including:

— $1,984 for remediation/mitigation work in February 2024.

— $15,125 for remediation/mitigation work from April through May 2024, plus asbestos and mold testing necessitated by the repeated water leaks.

— $141,920 for the replacement of the roof over City Hall.

— $319,760 for the replacement of the remaining roofs over the vehicle maintenance and police buildings.

— $63,512 for mold and asbestos remediation work, including where leaking water caused floor tiles to crack, requiring their removal and handling as asbestos-containing materials.

— $4,600 for further mold testing to confirm whether abatement was successful.

— $34,375 for restoration work to avoid “permanent diminution” in the value of the “substantially damaged” City Hall interior, including replacement of ceiling tiles, flooring and finishes.

— And at least $1,214 for the replacement of damaged personal property, including a police interrogation camera damaged by water that leaked into the police department building.

The lawsuit also noted the loss of the use of City Hall during “multiple periods” due to water leaks and remediation, mitigation and restoration work. The lawsuit also noted the costs incurred for “excess utility consumption during the extensive remediation, mitigation and restoration efforts, including increased electricity consumption for running drying fans, dehumidifiers and tools used in repairs.” Also noted were “diminished staff productivity, including during multiple periods when public works’ personnel had to address leak-related issues and when other City Hall staff’s work was disrupted by relocations.”

The lawsuit’s 12 counts allege negligence, breach of contract and violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act by both Copper Creek Contractors and Janes; and negligence by Mid-West Coatings, which dissolved in October 2023. The suit also alleges that Midwest Roofing, which was incorporated in February 2023 but did not become a licensed roofing contractor until December 2024, should be held liable as the “successor” to Mid-West Coatings. The president of Mid-West Coatings was Kyle Barrow of Charleston, while its registered agent was Douglas Sager of Charleston. Meanwhile, Barrow is also president of Midwest Roofing, whose agent, Sager Financial Services Inc., shares the same Charleston address as Sager.

A jury trial has been requested. As of Wednesday, Sept. 3, an initial court hearing had not yet been set.

Gibson City Mayor Dan Dickey had no comment on the lawsuit when reached via text message on Tuesday, Sept. 2.

“At this time, the city has no comment beyond what is stated in the materials that the city has filed in court,” Dickey said.

Meanwhile, Janes did not immediately respond to a message left with a woman who answered the phone at Copper Creek Contractors on Tuesday, Sept. 2. Later that same day, his attorney, Kyle Emkes of Champaign, sent the Ford County Chronicle a “cease-and-desist” letter threatening a lawsuit against the newspaper. The letter was also copied to the Gibson City Council, the mayor, City Attorney Marc Miller and Tyler Martin, superintendent of water, streets and alleys.

It was the second cease-and-desist letter received from Emkes, who also sent one more than a year earlier in response to the Chronicle’s news coverage of the roofing job, which he claimed contained “false and malicious statements” that were damaging to Copper Creek Contractors’ reputation and business.

“As previously advised, all parties have been instructed not to contact Jeremy Janes regarding the Gibson City Hall’s roof,” Emkes wrote in the most recent letter. “Despite this clear directive, we have been made aware of recent communication attempts and comments concerning our client while there remains an active insurance claim and pending investigation. Please be advised that we are taking all necessary steps to address this matter promptly and appropriately. Additionally, any statement insinuating litigation constitutes a clear and published threat against our client, and any resulting financial loss expressly reserves the right to pursue all available remedies. … All future communication regarding this matter must be made exclusively through legal counsel, as instructed in our original letter. Should you fail to meet these requirements, it is our intent to file a lawsuit against you to seek enforcement of my client’s rights and recover damages.”