Sub-zero temps froze pipes, plant
Passing the gavel
Several days of below zero temperatures and strong winds causing extremely cold wind chills wreaked havoc for city and school facilities this past week causing both school and city personnel to work over the holiday weekend.
An old metal water main along North Curtis Avenue broke Friday night and the treatment plant “froze,” according to Water Utilities superintendent Ken Hayes.
Asked whether the weather played a factor in the water main break, Hayes said: “I’m sure it did — for it to crack across that 2.5 inch older metal line, for it to blow like that in the cold weather.”
Hayes said only three residences were affected as the water lines are adequately “looped” allowing a means to shut down one portion of a line and still provide water from another direction. He said the regulations for boil orders are very strict and because it was only three homes for about an hour and a half, he did not have to issue a boil order.
As for the treatment plant, Hayes said there was more damage from this winter weather than there was two years ago when the actual temperatures were lower. He attributed that to the extreme wind and wind chills. He said several portions of the plant have had to be bypassed and once there is a complete thaw, “we’ll have to fix things.”
“We had a lot of stuff freeze up and damage done,” he said. “It’s just too cold for this part of the country.”
He said using large heaters, employees were able to get things “unthawed.”
“We had a tough four days ‘off,’” Hayes said, explaining that temperatures were too cold Friday night to ask employees to work on the main on North Curtis, but they spent about an hour and a half on it Saturday morning.
Water line breaks on all four school campuses drew maintenance staff and school officials into work over the holiday weekend.
Superintendent Keith Martin said the first was discovered on Friday when staff found breaks at both the Junior High and the Primary schools. He said the break at the high school was discovered Saturday and one was discovered Sunday night at the Intermediate School gym.
“We’ve got everything cleaned up,” Martin said, explaining that during extreme weather, he and other school personnel walk through the buildings checking the facilities.
“We walk buildings,” he said, explaining that the community uses the Intermediate gym and had gone up there to play basketball Sunday night when they discovered the line break.
“People don’t realize when it’s cold like this, we walk buildings,” Martin said, explaining that water lines are “up in ceiling … we may have an expanse of pipe that runs, may only serve a restroom, if that thing bursts, will affect 50% of the building if you let it run.”
He credited the hard work of maintenance workers James “Heavy” Reeves and Steve Jordan and assistant superintendent Kevin Ramey.
“It’s just part of building maintenance,” Martin said. “That’s the great thing about these guys, they’re dedicated to the school district. Even on a holiday, they’ll take time and walk buildings.”
Martin said in the high school, a small copper pipe in the riser room burst. “That was a baby spew compared to the ones up in the Primary and the others.”
“That’s what negative temperatures will do.”
A sprinkler system has to be reset and two sprinkler heads must be replaced, he said.
“We’ll be ready for school and even for the Holiday Tournament and YCB,” he said.
There was no structural damage, but all the art supplies in the art storage room in the Primary School were destroyed.
“It was a long weekend,” Martin said. “We’re going to start cycling the water back up today (Monday). We’ll start with the high school because the kids start using it today.
“I think we have it under control,” he said.
“What people don’t realize, it’s more than what they see,” Martin said about the operation of a school district. “It’s a small village that runs it — maintenance, grounds, custodial, food service, teaching and learning, payroll — we’re our own little community. When one goes down, everybody pitches in and helps.”