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Water lines are freezing in the city

GLENWOOD CITY — Doug Doornink, the City’s Public Works Director addressed the City Council Monday night about freezing water pipes. “We are at a critical stage right now,” Doornink told the council. He explained that 16 homes have had frozen water pipes and a firm out of Menomonie has come to the city to thaw those pipes.

Frost is at the depth of the city’s water mains and Doornink said that tap water is in the mid 30 degrees right now and it should be about 45 degrees.

 Leave Your Water Run

That was Doornink’s message to the council. He talked about contacting all city residents to request that they leave their water running. He noted that it cost about $300 per home to have water lines thaw out and if the city notified each homeowner then it would be the home owners responsibility to see that the water lines did not freeze.

It may cost more on your water bill to leave the water running, but the council moved to have the city crew contact every home with a flyer that requests homeowners to keep the water running. The homeowners will not be charged for the extra water usage the council later agreed.

A State Wide Effort

The Council heard from Fire Chief Greg Holden about the Glenhaven fire, especially all the help the city received from other fire departments through the new MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) that brought some 228 emergency personal to the city with 77 firefighting vehicles.

He noted that in the last two hours of the fire, all of Glenwood City’s Fire equipment had been taken off line and returned to the fire station and were being made ready for another fire if one had happened. He stated that the Eau Claire Fire Department took over the duties of the Glenwood City Department. He also told the council that fire departments as far away as LaCrosse and Milwaukee County were on standby to respond to Glenwood City if need.

Holden spoke about the MABAS State Convention in July at Green Bay and asked the council for permission to attend. The main topic at that meeting will be the Glenhaven fire.

In other council action, they:

• Approved the final payment of $3,6121.40 to Haas Sons for street work last year. The total cost of the project was $361,000 according to Kevin Oium of Cedar Corporation. After this is paid, Oium noted that they would work on a couple of grants where the city could get some $31,000 reimbursement for the street work.

• Approved an operators license for Nancy L. Thompson and accepted a $200 donation from the Glenwood City United Methodist Church. The church held Sunday services in the Community Center this past fall while their church was being remodeled.

• Tabled a motion to spend some $4,800 on software program for the municipal court. Council member David Graese noted that they have had some discussion about doing away with the local municipal court.