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Zup’s Food Market was bringing in bottled water as fast as it could last week when the city was without water eight hours and without drinkable water for nearly two days.
“Let people know I still have another pallet here if they want to stock up,” said Jim Zupancich on Thursday morning, prior to a boil advisory being lifted by the city.
The break occurred in the main water line that runs from the city water plant to the water tower around 4 p.m. Tuesday. From there it was all hands on deck for every city department to make repairs to lines that date back around 100 years.
Within minutes toilets wouldn’t flush and faucets no longer provided a cup of Burntside throughout the city limits. By 12:30 a.m. the repairs were made by a dedicated group of city workers and the water flowed again. But there was a problem. Once the systems lost pressure, an automatic boil advisory had to be put in place.
Until the city water system could be checked and approved by the state Department of Health, most restaurants and bars were forced to close. And Zup’s couldn’t keep bottled water in stock. Workers quickly emptied the storeroom of water and it was sold right away.
We did learn a few things from this incident. One, there will be times when we will be without water. There are still some century-old water lines that need to be replaced. City operations director Harold Langowski said he was going to push Sen. Grant Hauschild and Rep. Roger Skraba to continue to look for funding for this type of project.
And it isn’t uncommon to have a couple of city blocks without water when repairs are being made, two of which occurred after the system was pressurized on Wednesday.
So, having some water jugs to be able to flush a toilet or two along with bottled water to drink or cook with is a good idea.
We would also like to thank city workers who were able to locate replacement parts in Virginia, Eveleth and Grand Rapids to be able to make the repairs as quickly and efficiently as possible. We’re also thankful no one was injured in this incident, especially when that much pressure is unleashed.
City residents who were inconvenienced were happy to hear the boil advisory lifted on Thursday but for our restaurants, there was a revenue loss that may not be recovered. So, to celebrate our water main repairs, how about going out to one (or more) of our restaurants for a nice meal? You could also stop for a bump at one of the impacted bars as well.
We’re thankful all is well that ends well and we’re cognizant that life can throw a monkey wrench (or a pipe wrench) at our regular lives from time to time.
