Water main breaks costly ‘blessing’
By Suzanne Werre
Editor
Underwood’s recent water main breaks that ended up forcing a “boil order” on the residents of Underwood was deemed a “blessing in disguise” by Underwood City Commissioner Jay Snyder at last Wednesday’s special meeting of the commission.
The commission held a special meeting to approve a water emergency declaration following the recent water main breaks and fire hydrant damage.
The McLean County Sheriff’s Department is currently investigating the possibility that several of the city’s fire hydrants were tampered with, which caused them to freeze during the frigid temperatures.
If the fire department had tried to use those hydrants, they would have been unusable, noted the commissioners, warranting the “blessing in disguise” comment from Snyder. At least the city and fire department became aware of the damaged hydrants during the water main break problem. It could have been a terrible scenario if the fire department had to respond to a fire and was unable to get water from the hydrants.
Instead, the city is left having to pay for replacement of the hydrants, as well as the water main damage and repair of the streets that were torn up.
“Basically because of the extensive damage that we’re going to have to repair – we’re going to have bills coming in for the breaks that we fixed,” said Commission President Leon Weisenburger.
