By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Mother Nature hasn’t been very kind to City of Decatur employees of late – nor most residents of Adams County and the area, for that matter – and their efforts were duly noted at Tuesday’s meeting of city council.
There were, of course, those two main break repairs in approximately 24 hours on January 14-15, with temperatures hovering around zero and wind-chills well below that mark.
In all, the repairs took some 10-12 hours!
At the same time, a crew of Decatur firefighters were in Bluffton, using their aerial truck to help Bluffton and other area firefighters battle a major house fire over several hours.
“We had six different (water) leaks in the coldest of weather” in a few days, Operations Manager Jeremy Gilbert told city council on Tuesday. “Our employees did very, very well – I was proud of them.”
Another break occurred on Line St., between Adams and Elm streets.
“Yes, people can be thankful they continued to have their water (flowing),” Mayor Dan Rickord added.
The mayor chuckled when he said that there was a post on social media wondering why the city didn’t heat its water mains.
He pointed out that the city has 55 miles of mains, which carry water to homes and businesses.
What happens, the mayor said, is that in bitter cold, “frost moves down and down, and when you have 50- and 75-year-old pipes, it’s going to be a problem.”
“Yes, all our problems were weather related,” Gilbert said.
