Water main break postpones town council

BY JENNIFER HOEGG

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

A broken pipe that sent water gushing down King and Gerrish Streets forced Windsor Town Council to cancel its monthly meeting Tuesday, Jan. 22.

After the 4:30 p.m. break, properties between Grey and Corbett Streets, including the town offices, were without water for roughly six hours. Town Public Works crews tackled the problem in the evening’s cold, blowing snow and freezing rain.

Water was restored to the street just after 10 p.m. and business resumed as usual in the Town building Wednesday morning.

Windsor CAO Louis Coutinho praised the workers’ effort, saying, “they’re a remarkable crew. I’m very proud of them. To get through the frost, replace the pipe and close up the whole again - that’s pretty fast.”

Director of Public Works Don Beattie says crews are used to working in harsh conditions. “They’re doing well. They’ve gotten used to it over the years. The numbers have been a bit severe, but other than that it’s pretty much business as usual.”

A split pipe caused Tuesday’s water main break, Beattie said. “A lot of water escaped and it was a bit of a spectacular event.”

Despite the dramatic break, Beattie said the high rate of water main breaks experienced in December has not continued into January. “It had slowed down for a period of a couple of weeks. We’ve had a couple in the past week or so.“

Coutinho adds that the slew of water main breaks this winter is an indication of the town’s aging infrastructure

January’s Council meeting has been rescheduled to Wednesday, Jan. 30.