A project that has been two months in determining the “who’s responsible” phase and another month in the “fixing” phase is finally complete, according to Belle Public Works Director Tony Baretich.
“It is essentially completed, just waiting for the ground to dry up to put the Jones’ yard back together for them,” Baretich said Tuesday afternoon. “It didn’t go as planned, but it got completed. We didn’t know what we were dealing with underground.”
The Joneses noticed a water leak flooding their yard around the end of April, beginning of May. They asked the city employees who was responsible. The city thought it might be them, then determined it was the property owner, only to later find out it was the city’s responsibility. The water line was not on the map.
Baretich discovered that the waterline was under the residents’ house and serviced two other homes down the street.
“Everything has been rerouted and took more and longer than what we thought,” Baretich said. “We redirected two homes’ water lines so they have their own service lines now versus sharing the line that went through there. The main purpose was to eliminate the water leak and remove a water main from underneath a resident’s home.”