A water main ruptured under Riverside Drive about 6:45 a.

Friday, February 04, 2000

A water main ruptured under Riverside Drive about 6:45 a.m. Thursday morning, which cut off the water supply to the village tank and lowered water pressure, said Tom McKnight, Coal Grove mayor.

"It broke under the middle of the road," McKnight said. "It’s something we’ll probably have to replace so there are no problems later."

Schools dismissed students about 1 p.m. Thursday, said Dr. James Payne, Dawson-Bryant superintendent.

Water pressure was low and village officials did not know when they were going to get the problem solved.

"We were not notified until after we had the kids in the school," Payne said. "We were able to have breakfast and the food service director made plans for lunch. But for sanitary reasons and other reasons, we though it best to send the kids home. We don’t like to do that, but we have to consider the other side, too."

The break was fixed shortly after the schools closed, and should pose no problems today, Payne said.

Not all Coal Grove village residents were inconvenienced Thursday, McKnight added.

"We had enough water for village residents’ use," he said.

But the water Hecla Water Association buys for customers living beyond Deering was shut off temporarily, McKnight said.

A boil water advisory was not issued, village administrator Mark Dean said.

"We didn’t lose water," Dean said. "We just fed lines out of the tank all day with no way to get water back into it.

"We didn’t want to take a chance depressurizing our system because the tank was getting so low, so we asked the schools close," he said, adding that school buildings are heavy users. "That gave us a chance to fill the tank back up."