Water, Water Nowhere

A hit-and-run accident may be responsible for a water main break this past Tuesday that disrupted water service to about 20 homes on Boardman Street and to Freeman-Centennial School, the town’s public works director said. The water main broke at about 11:09 a.m. Tuesday, and water service wasn’t restored until after 6 p.m., according to town officials. Damage to a fire hydrant on Boardman Street a few hundred feet east of Rockwood Road suggests a car may have run into it and sheared it off, leading to the disruption in water service, said Remo “Butch” Vito, director of the Norfolk Department of Public Works. Norfolk public schools have been on February vacation this past week, so most students were not in school. But a special education class at Freeman-Centennial had to be curtailed, Vito said. Police assisted at 11 car accidents in Norfolk on Tuesday, as several inches of wet, heavy snow made roads slick all over town. The accompanying photo shows Norfolk Fire Captain Peter Petruchik, right, inspecting the Boardman Street water main break Tuesday as firefighter-paramedics Jamie Masterson, Charlotte Giovanella, and Pat Rockett, left to right, stand by after checking a home for water in the basement and driveway.
Photo Courtesy Norfolk Fire Department