Sheldon, Iowa — More information has been released about a major water leak in Sheldon on Saturday night, March 2nd.
Sheldon Public Works Director Todd Uhl tells us about it.
Uhl says it’s a fairly common thing, but this one was the worst one so far this winter. According to Uhl, they’ve had several leaks in the last 30 to 45 days. He says when the frost goes out of the ground they will probably have more.
He tells us what they had to do to repair the leak.
Uhl says that rumors that the water tower was in danger of being emptied were unfounded. He says more water was going out than was coming in, but he called the rumor “a stretch.”
The water main break was on the north end of Rainbow Drive, says Uhl. We asked him how many homes were without water, and he gave us his best educated guess.
Uhl says the valve has been put on the repair list for this summer. He says they replace a number of valves every year.
He tells us that the break was pretty close to a storm sewer catch basin, so there wasn’t much water on the street to become ice with the temps in the single digits, but as you might expect, the cold did make it a little more difficult, according to Uhl.
********************************************
First update, posted Saturday, Mar 2, 2019 at 10:30 p.m.:
UPDATE: According to Sheldon Public Works Director Todd Uhl, water service was restored to northern Sheldon water customers about 10:15 on Saturday night. He says he received the call about the problem at 5:05 p.m.
********************************************
Original story, posted Saturday, Mar 2, 2019 at 9:25 p.m.:
Sheldon, Iowa — A major water leak in Sheldon has forced city crews to turn off the water in a fairly large portion of northern Sheldon.
According to Sheldon Public Works Director Todd Uhl, Sheldon Water Department workers are on the scene of a major water leak in northern Sheldon. He says the leak is on Rainbow Drive. The work was hampered by a valve that wouldn’t work. Uhl says the water is off for those on Oak Street, north of Sanford Sheldon Hospital and Rainbow Drive, which is east of Washington Avenue and north of Shopko.
Uhl says crews hope to have the problem repaired in a couple of hours. Repairs continue.
Photo: Dean Hansen
