Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – Students at Presque Isle Middle School were dismissed early last Friday because of a broken water main, which left the school and residents at the Skyway Trailer Park without water for much of the day. According to Steve Freeman, superintendent of the Presque Isle Water and Sewer District, water had to be shut off on Skyway Street after a water main was accidentally broken.
“The sewer district has a contractor – Alan Trombley Construction – installing a sewer main at the Industrial Park, and they have a subcontractor drilling and blasting for ledge,” said Freeman. “When the subcontractor drilled and blasted Friday morning, he broke the water main.
“It was simply an accident,” he said. “You know where he’s drilling and blasting, and you know where the water main is, but you just can’t see underground to see the connection.”
Freeman said the water main goes in front of the middle school and continues on into the Industrial Park.
“The first thing we have to do when it breaks like that is shut off the main so it can be dug out and repaired,” he said. “We probably got the main shut off around 9:30 a.m. and the incident happened around 8:30 a.m. Because of the size of the break, the school lost water immediately.
“We then looked at contingencies for providing water to the school. One way of doing that is running a hose from hydrant to hydrant from a hydrant that has water to the hydrant at the school that doesn’t have water,” said Freeman. “We couldn’t guarantee in such a short period of time that the water would be drinkable, so the school opted to close early.”
SAD 1 Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said PIMS students were released at noon.
“It was a situation where we really didn’t have a choice in the matter,” he said. “We need water to conduct school. There are about 500 people in the building, so water is imperative. We had no choice but to close.
“We had to alter a few things around the lunch hour, but we were able to provide lunch,” said Johnson. “We got a half-day in which is good. If we miss more than half a day, we’re required to make the day up, but that wasn’t the case in this situation.”
Freeman said the contractor was responsible for fixing the damage, while the Water District provided the materials to do so.
“After they fixed it, we had to check to make sure there were no other leaks underground,” he said. “Water service was restored by 3 p.m. You usually can’t repair a water main in less than four to six hours.”
The subcontractor has more drilling and blasting to do.
“We have asked them not to do any blasting in the morning, but do it in the afternoon,” said Freeman, “so if another accident happens, it’s less inconvenient to the school.”
The drilling and blasting, which is being done for a sewer main extension, should be done this week.
“Accidents happen,” Freeman said. “There doesn’t appear to be any negligence. We’re just going to take the precaution of having the blasting done in the afternoon to make it easier for the school should a similar incident occur.”
