Hundreds of area residents were left without power for a few hours as a result of an overnight outage on Friday night, August 31st, in Woodstock.
But the power outage also affected a water reservoir, forcing the town to issue a boil order as a precaution.
Woodstock Mayor Art Slipp realizes the inconvenience of the boil order, but said it is a safety precaution.
"We are certainly aware that this is a major inconvenience for the citizens of the Town of Woodstock," Slipp told the Bugle-Observer. "As soon as town officials were aware of the problem, they immediately began remedial action."
"We ask for the continued patience of citizens. We hope to have the boil order lifted as soon as possible."
Slipp added that the boil order is necessary due to an apparent technical malfunction at one of the water reservoirs caused by the power outage Friday night. The outage continued throughout the night.
"It is being investigated by town staff to see the nature of the problem and why the system failed," Slipp said.
He noted that the handling of the situation was done according to safety protocols, and the boil order was instated as a public safety measure.
"We are waiting for the results of tests so the boil order can be lifted."
The Town of Woodstock says that any water which will be ingested (used for drinking, brushing teeth, making ice cubes, or washing raw vegetables) should be brought to a rolling boil for at least one minute.
The water is safe to use for taking showers or baths or washing dishes with hot water and soap, and it will not impact the safety of swimming pools.
Streets affected by the boil order include Main Street (from Cambridge Street to Upham Street), Connell Street (between Main Street and St. James Street), Boyne, Bridge, Broadway, Bell, Bull, Carleton, Cedar, Cemetery, Centre, Chapel, Church, College, Cross, Division, Douglas, Elm, Emerald, Foundry, George, Gold, Green, Grover, Guelph, Hartley, Harvey, King, Maple, Orange, Park, Pine, Prince Albert, Prince William, Queen, Queen Street South, Regent, Richmond, St. Andrews, St. Gertrude, St. John, Union, Union Street North, Victoria, Water, Water Street South, and White Street.
With files from the Bugle-Observer and CJ 104
But the power outage also affected a water reservoir, forcing the town to issue a boil order as a precaution.
Woodstock Mayor Art Slipp realizes the inconvenience of the boil order, but said it is a safety precaution.
"We are certainly aware that this is a major inconvenience for the citizens of the Town of Woodstock," Slipp told the Bugle-Observer. "As soon as town officials were aware of the problem, they immediately began remedial action."
"We ask for the continued patience of citizens. We hope to have the boil order lifted as soon as possible."
Slipp added that the boil order is necessary due to an apparent technical malfunction at one of the water reservoirs caused by the power outage Friday night. The outage continued throughout the night.
"It is being investigated by town staff to see the nature of the problem and why the system failed," Slipp said.
He noted that the handling of the situation was done according to safety protocols, and the boil order was instated as a public safety measure.
"We are waiting for the results of tests so the boil order can be lifted."
The Town of Woodstock says that any water which will be ingested (used for drinking, brushing teeth, making ice cubes, or washing raw vegetables) should be brought to a rolling boil for at least one minute.
The water is safe to use for taking showers or baths or washing dishes with hot water and soap, and it will not impact the safety of swimming pools.
Streets affected by the boil order include Main Street (from Cambridge Street to Upham Street), Connell Street (between Main Street and St. James Street), Boyne, Bridge, Broadway, Bell, Bull, Carleton, Cedar, Cemetery, Centre, Chapel, Church, College, Cross, Division, Douglas, Elm, Emerald, Foundry, George, Gold, Green, Grover, Guelph, Hartley, Harvey, King, Maple, Orange, Park, Pine, Prince Albert, Prince William, Queen, Queen Street South, Regent, Richmond, St. Andrews, St. Gertrude, St. John, Union, Union Street North, Victoria, Water, Water Street South, and White Street.
With files from the Bugle-Observer and CJ 104
Nathan, why don't you get the "REAL" story. The boil order simply didn't happen because the power went out. The power outage caused a technicial malfunction with the pumps. Yes, but normally when this happens, public works employees receive a page. You know what? They never did get a page. You know why? Because the town has an out of date, faulty pager system for employees. The power outage caused the pumps to malfunction. Nobody knew about it because the pagers failed. A business downtown called at 4am saying they didn't have water and this is how public works found out about it. The water tank near Culbert Drive was totally drained and the water tank on St. Andrews street as well....so the water was off for a very very long time before anyone knew. Do you know how much it is going to cost to update the pager system? Anywhere from $50-$100,000. But, hey, let's build an expansion on the civic centre.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback. It is greatly appreciated and will help me to improve the blog in the future. I had no idea that there were this many larger problems. I wrote the story using what information I could find at the time.
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