by Geoff Fox
A water main break at 57 East Main Street earlier this month led to a boil water advisory and left people complaining about not receiving notification about the advisory.
An eight-inch water main broke on Tuesday, November 4, and was repaired that night. However, a boil water advisory was issued the next morning due to the repair coming around 11 p.m. and testing having to be done the next morning.
At the time, Town Manager Mike Faith said there was so much water coming out of the break that it looked like a geyser. It also caused a section of Main Street and the sidewalk to be pushed up and in need of repair.
That repair was completed on November 11.
The town lost 25,000 gallons of water during the break and about a foot and a half of water in the water tank on Blue Hill.
At the November town meeting, Faith said was on the town’s social media page and the sign along Pennsylvania Avenue, but in general, it’s difficult to get the notification out to everyone.
Faith told town officials he got in touch with the county, who has a countywide notification system.
That system, he said, allows county officials to draw a circle around Hancock and send a notification to the affected area.
Faith posted the link to sign up for those alerts on the town’s social media page and has flyers available.
“If people want to be notified quickly in situations like that, this is the way to do it,” Faith said about the county’s notification system.
When he told the county the boil water advisory had been lifted, Faith said within the hour, the county had the message sent to those who signed up.
Only 25 people signed up, he said.
Faith said the system is free and people can create a profile that would allow them to receive the notifications and also information first responders might need should they be called to the address.
Councilman David Kerns wanted to remind people the town’s new system for the water bills allows notification to be sent out as well, but people need to update their information for the water bills.
The need for people to update their water bill information, including phone numbers, was raised during the September town meeting.
Mayor Roland Lanehart, Jr. said the phone numbers on record are numbers for landlines people don’t have since they’ve switched to cell phones.
Kerns said updating the phone numbers on the water bills would make sense as people didn’t know about the boil water advisory or get one.
To sign up for the alerts and register your information, you can go to https://smart911.com/smart911/registration/registrationLanding.action and sign up.
