SHENANDOAH — The sub-zero temperatures during the past weekend did cause some frozen water pipes and broken meters in Shenandoah, but nothing close to the scale of last winter’s problems.
Calls were received by the Municipal Authority of the Borough of Shenandoah about frozen meters, according to authority manager Mary Lou Jaskierski.
“We had a couple of calls about frozen meters yesterday,” Jaskierski said on Monday. “We had about eight calls overall. Some had frozen meters and some had no water. Almost all were in Shenandoah, with one near Girardville.”
The authority serves customers in Shenandoah, West Mahanoy Township and Butler Township to the east of Girardville.
During the 2014-15 winter, the Shenandoah authority and other water authorities and companies suffered through the season due to a stretch of frigid weather. MABS had many water main freezes, along with a large number of homes and businesses without water. The circumstances were discussed at authority meetings in 2015 in order to better address freezing mains if the situation reoccurred.
“Actually, it wasn’t too bad over the weekend, but I was holding my breath,” Jaskierski said. “Hopefully, if people would warm up their basements and block all cold air flowing in, it would help.”
Jaskierski said the authority will replace the broken water meters, but since they are on the property owner’s side past the curbstop, the owner foots the bill for the replacement, which costs $170.
For those without water, about 20 people went to the J.W. Cooper Community Center in Shenandoah to get gallons of water for their homes. Owner Kent Steinmetz said that some residential pipes had frozen and the center was happy to supply water as it had done last winter.
“I had received a call on Saturday from our maintenance person, Anthony Rettzo, that people came to the building at the ‘Boys’ entrance looking for water,” Steinmetz said. “It wasn’t that the mains were frozen, but their internal pipes froze. We had anticipated possible issues, not like last year, and we had obtained empty one-gallon containers for water. We keep our pipes wrapped with heat tape, so we have water.”
Steinmetz said people can bring their own bottles to fill or use those available at the center. Steinmetz added that there were no requests for water Sunday, but 10 people came to the center Monday for water.
Steinmetz told those who need water should knock on the “Boys” entrance door and Rettzo will fill water containers. If there is no answer, call 570-933-2453 and someone will show up to help. There is a sign on the door with the phone number.