Water break – Broken line closes Centertown School

Centertown Elementary students got an unexpected day out of school Friday when the new facility experienced a lack of water, but not due to the drought.

According to Mike Green, general manager of Warren County Utility District, telemetry on the tanks indicated the water line broke a little after 4 a.m. At around 5 a.m., the first complaint call was received.

At the first indication of a problem, the department sent out crews to find and isolate the break. When that break was found on Bethany Road beside the Bethany water tank at around 6 a.m., the crews began to reroute water to return service to at least some customers in the area.

At the time the water line first broke, it was estimated 500 homes in the Centertown area were without water. By 6:30 a.m., most of the water was restored to all but 100 homes. The break was completely repaired by 11:30 a.m., according to Green.

‘Sorry for any inconvenience this break may have caused,’ said Green. ‘We will be pulling samples of the water throughout the area in different locations to check for bacteria in the water.’

Although the department worked as quickly as possible to isolate the problem and restore the water, precautionary measures required Centertown School to close.

‘I got the call at 6:15 this morning,’ said Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale on Friday. ‘By 7:30, the school still didn’t have water. With the extreme temperatures, we need to be careful. Without water, the children wouldn’t have any drinking water or bathroom facilities.’

Because no definite answer could be given as to when the water would be back on, Hale made the call to send students home for the day. At around 9 a.m., buses were used to take students home who were not picked up by parents.

Due to the break, air may have entered the lines. If anyone sees white water, this is an indication of air. Please contact the utility district at 668-4175 and an employee will come out and flush the line.