The scene at the NAPA store March 12 following a waterline break in front of the Town of Westlock Fire Hall.
An early-morning waterline break March 12 flooded a downtown business and left some residents, as well as the Town of Westlock Fire Hall, without water for the better part of a day.
Town of Westlock acting chief administrative officer Simone Wiley said they were notified of the break on 99 Avenue, between 106 and 107 Street, at 2 a.m. — workers restored water service by 7 p.m.
“It’s that time of year,” she said. “We called a contractor right away and they exposed it for us.”
As water line breaks are fairly common with the spring thaw, Wiley noted they have a contingency fund in place to cover them, although she could not say how much repairs will cost.
“It’s routine operations. There would be some overtime costs and a little bit to cover the contractor, but nothing crazy.”
She added if there was any damage to property over and above a quick clean up, residents could contact the town’s insurance company.
Fire department not disrupted
Town of Westlock fire chief Stuart Koflick said that while the hall was without running water as the work was being done, the department had a contingency in place for just such an event.
He noted the town’s fire hydrant system is mostly looped, so if the department needed to they could draw water from another main line.
“As far as risk to the community, there was not any,” he said.
“It’s just a couple extra planning steps for us when these sorts of things happen.”
He also noted in the case of a serious emergency the department has a mutual-aid agreement with Westlock County.
Ironically, the breach forced some much-needed repairs on the cement around the hall, which they’ve been replacing incrementally.
“The concrete has been settling and moving over the last 10 years and I had budgeted for concrete replacement. This was kind of a blessing in disguise because they had to dig down to the undisturbed soil and re-compact it,” he said.
“So now we have a better opportunity to maintain the pad now.”
NAPA flooded again
NAPA Auto Parts owner Ryan Provencal said he got a phone call at 4:30 a.m. from the town that water was flowing into his business.
“Not the best way to wake up, that’s for sure,” he said. “There was probably an inch, to an inch-and-a-half of water throughout the store.”
Fortunately, the damage was minimal. Provencal noted his shop flooded four years ago and he had to replace the flooring then. The new flooring, an epoxy cement, was designed specifically to repel water.
“The joke at the time was if I ever flooded again I could just vacuum and squeegee out my floor,” he said. “As it turns out, it’s true, I could.”
Provencal figured he had lost at most a couple thousand dollars in product and was just going to cut his losses. He said he was happy with the town’s response to the break.
“It’s a water break. No one can do anything about it,” he said.
“The town was super helpful and they did everything and more that they could do.”
