Clay County Times-Democrat: Local News: Water Main Repair Effort Complete (01/03/13)

Piggott city workers work on the faulty water main Thursday morning

The temporary repair efforts are complete dealing with the water main break that left a portion of downtown Piggott without service this week. The six inch main apparently failed sometime late Tuesday beneath the north end of the Jones Furniture building. The main runs east and west in the alley behind the buildings on the north side of the square. It also runs across North Third Street, to service the block that includes the post office, Hoggard and Sons Funeral Home and the First Methodist Church.

Those customers had their service restored just before 4 p.m. Thursday.

The break was discovered, and reported, around 11 p.m. Tuesday by Piggott Police Chief Bill Alstadt although he was off-duty at the time. Alstadt noticed, and reported water running from the front and side doors of the building. Authorities then contacted owner Kevin Jones.

Further investigation revealed that the main had failed due to deterioration.

"We had four to six inches of water in the store, it was quite a mess," noted Julia Jones as the clean-up continued Wednesday. "But it could have been worse, nobody was hurt."

Mayor Gerald Morris joined Utilities Manager Brian Haley and Water Superintendent Bradley Scheffler at the scene, along with a crew from the water department. By early Wednesday morning the crew had exposed the main in a location just east of the building, and it was capped.

Later that day, the lines were re-routed, providing water to about 20 of the affected customers between North Third and the railroad track.

Thursday morning city workers exposed the west end of the main between the post office and funeral home, and completed the temporary repair.

Later, the main will be re-located north of the building by way of a road-bore beneath North Third/U.S. Highway 62.