LAKE DELTON, Wis. -- The wheels of pending legal action against the village of Lake Delton now appear to be in motion.

VIDEO: Watch The Report | TALKBACK: What Do You Think? | READ: See Notice Of Claim Submitted To Village Of Lake Delton (PDF Format)

Some property owners who lost land or houses in the Lake Delton flood last June have filed a formal notice with village officials that they might file a claim. If such a claim is rejected by the village, the next step would be to file a lawsuit, WISC-TV reported.

Village clerk-treasurer Kay Mackesey Thursday said that she was e-mailed the notice on Wednesday. She said that it individually targets the Village Board and trustees, including the president, as well as six public works employees, the assistant zoning administrator, village engineer and consulting firms MSA and Mead and Hunt.

Mackesey said that she had no comment on the "notice of circumstances of claim" and said the item would be put on the agenda for Monday's village board meeting.

She said that the media would get a press release from the village about the notice in the next two days.

After heavy storms soaked parts of southern Wisconsin during the weekend of June 5 through June 9, an earthen section of the Lake Delton shore was breached on June 9. The man-made lake overran its banks and emptied into the nearby Wisconsin River. The flood of water washed out a nearby county highway and damaged several nearby homes. It swept away nine lots, including five houses, as it carved a gorge through a low section on the lake.

Lake Delton is dam controlled, but some of the affected property owners said that they believe the village was negligent in its operation of the high-hazard dam that weekend and they believe it caused the loss of their property. They said they would like to see complete reimbursement for their losses. They said that previous payments by the state Department of Transportation for their property only covered some of their losses.

The attorney for the village of Lake Delton tells said that he sees no case in the notice of claim filed Wednesday with the village, WISC-TV reported.

But that's not the property owners think. They believe the village was negligent in failing to plug the catastrophic draining of Lake Delton.

"We went from having our own house...a great situation -- what we called our dream home - - to not having a home anymore," said Tim Fromm.

Fromm's family lost their home and other owners came found they had nothing as well.

"At 5 a.m. on a Monday morning, I got a call, one gentleman called and said, maybe you should come up. I said why is that? He said it doesn't look good...That was it," said Don Kubenik who lost his vacation home. But three months after the lake breached, Kubenik, Fromm and six other owners who lost homes, land or both said it all could have been avoided.

"This was something that could have 100 percent been preventable. And we've had multiple people tell us this, not opinion, this is fact and it will be proved," said Fromm.

In a "notice of circumstances of claim", the precursor to a formal claim and possible lawsuit, eight of the nine owners in the path of the breach contend the disaster could have been stopped but that the village failed to take proper actions before and during the event, WISC-TV reported.

"The failure of the Lake Delton dam impoundment was preventable;" according to the notice "It was not simply an "act of god" or a result of uncontrollable forces of nature."

The noticed continued, "Had the lake level been properly controlled by the Dell Creek Dam, it asserts, or "had appropriate sandbagging of the low area (by the affected homes) been undertaken... The impoundment would not have been breached."

"Simple solution: sandbag that area that breached… you don't have this problem," said Fromm.

The notice stated the village had the time and the resources to sandbag a 12 foot seawall at the so-called Anchorage Subdivision but didn't even though it knew it was lower than the dam.

"They didn't do anything. They didn't do a thing. They said they had other things to do," said Kubenik.

Village crews started sandbagging the dam around 2 a.m. the day of the disaster, just as water was overtopping Highway A and police shut it down. The property owners contend the village was more concerned about protecting a sewage pumping station near the dam than them, WISC-TV reported.

"That's what we were told that they could not afford to lose the pumping station," said Fromm.

The notice also alleges the village was negligent in its maintenance and operation of the dam, and that, according to Department of Natural Resources calculations, the three gates on the dam were supposed to go up 6 feet but actually only opened up to four.

The extra 2 feet, the owners believe, could have made all the difference in the world.

"Very rough to spend all that time and money and wind up with nothing? Because people didn't do their job? I have a hard time accepting that, very hard," Kubenik said.

Fromm and Kubenik said they only want the village to pay them the difference between their total loss and the state payment they got for their land, which was condemned.

Village Attorney Dick cross said the board will meet next week on the claim but that the village has always operated its dam in compliance with the DNR, and under its supervision, WISC-TV reported.