A water main break flooded several businesses on 106 St. between 99 and 100 Ave. on Dec. 19, forcing the Town of Westlock to shut down the road and dig the damaged pipes up.
That did little to dampen the holiday spirit, however.
“It’s the way she goes,” said Westlock Stereo Shop owner Fred Serhijchuk with a laugh. “One of my favorite sayings is when life gives you lemons, make a lemonade.”
Serhijchuk added that his losses were similar to what he lost in the August “once in a century” flood that damaged businesses across the city.
“We lost a good sum of product. We don’t know how much and we don’t know how much the insurance is going to cover,” said Serhijchuk, who has been in business for nearly 40 years. “We were closed for a good day and a half. It comes kind of at a bad time of the year — our busiest time is Christmas. It’s the first time we’ve had water trouble ever since we’ve been in town now.”
Four other businesses in the area were affected, including the Westlock Butcher Shop, which held a “water main break sale” to offload meat. No residences were flooded.
Town of Westlock development and planning director Simone Wiley explained that the break was attended to at 5 a.m. and water had been shut off as soon as the town became aware of the break.
Water service was cut off from 100 Ave to 98 Ave for the entire day, cutting approximately 20 residences.
After that, crews worked until after midnight to first dig their way to the main and then replace it.
“They got the main back on at 12:45 a.m.,” said mayor Ralph Leriger. “They were back there today checking on a saddle that they wanted to make sure was good before they backfilled it.”
The hole was backfilled before noon on Dec. 20 and the street re-opened to traffic.
“We apologize for the inconvenience it caused, not only to the residential area but also to those businesses,” said Wiley. “We have some aging infrastructure and our crews worked long and hard to restore everybody’s service as quickly as possible.
As to the cause of the break, it was simply an act of nature and aging infrastructure.
“It’s an old main,” said Leriger. “We’ve had quite a few breaks in the last few weeks and they’re water related as the frost goes into the ground, causing it to heave. Water breaks are a winter thing.”
For his part, Serhijchuk is keeping his chin up.
“We always seem to find ways of getting by,” said Serhijchuk. “In time you just go forward and do the best. We’ll work with what we’ve got. People are supporting us.”
