COAL GROVE – Water began flowing again to Coal Grove water customers this morning after village utility crews worked overnight to repair a main water line break.

Wednesday, September 01, 1999

COAL GROVE – Water began flowing again to Coal Grove water customers this morning after village utility crews worked overnight to repair a main water line break.

But customers will have to boil water for at least the next 24 hours because the break caused the pressure to drop in lines, village officials said.

"We’re going to flush the lines ourselves and get the air out, but people will probably have some brown water for a while," village administrator Mark Dean said. "We were lucky we caught it as quick as we did."

The break happened about 2:30 a.m. on Brammer Drive near the village’s water tank, leaving more than 800 village customers and a number of other rural customers without service, Dean said.

"Someone called us about as soon as it happened and said he didn’t have any water, so we caught it quickly," he said.

Residents endured their morning rush-hour routines without water and local schools canceled classes.

"When everything’s going to be shut off, that’s never a good environment for students," middle school principal Scott Dutey said. "Restroom facilities and fountains are effected and it makes it next to impossible to cook."

School district officials are upset that they will lose another day of school, though.

The district began school a little more than a week later than the rest of the county to ensure the safety of students who would be attending the elementary school. A construction project had not yet been completed.

"It never helps to lose another day," Dutey said. "I know our semester was going to be somewhat short with the earlier delay. Any day we lose is never a good thing, but at least this happened early in the school year."

It is not yet known whether or not the schools will reopen Thursday. Any decision will depend on the water situation, Dutey said.

Eric Holmes, village council member and middle school assistant principal, anticipated school will be back in session now that water line repairs have been made.

Village crews battled mud and thousands of gallons of water spilling over the hillside to make those repairs.

And an electric company crew had to stabilize a nearby power pole so crews could work safely, Dean said.

Dean said he did not know why, but the eight-inch main line feeding from the water tank split, leaving no water flowing below the tank, he said.

Customers turning on taps today might see "foggy" or muddy water because of the air that came into the system during the break stirred up sediment in the lines, Dean added.

The village’s line flushing will remove that problem, he said.