Break prompts boil order in Goessel
Staff writer
A water pipe burst at 9:30 a.m. Sunday in Goessel, causing damage to S. Buller St. and the water to go out for many residents.
The public works department, of which director Alex Goossen is the only full-time employee, quickly got to work.
A community social media page informed residents of the leak at 10:06 a.m.
Later in the day, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment was notified, and the city issued a boil order for customers along S. Church St., S. Buller St., S. State St., W. Commercial St., Euclid Ave., and Prospect Ave.
Goossen said he had posted boil notices on every affected house by the end of the day.
He, Mayor Evan Esau, city council member Sam Griffin, and former public works director Paxton Van Rossun teamed up to repair the damage.
“We just suspect it was a pipe that fractured,” Goosen said. “It was an original pipe placed in the city. I couldn’t give you the dates of when that was.”
By the end of Sunday, the team had replaced the damaged 20-foot section of pipe and was able to get everyone’s water running again.
The exception was a residence on 116 S Buller St., the connecting pipe to which was damaged and had to be removed.
“We had to trench in a new line to his house today,” Goossen said Monday afternoon.
The residence’s water is now running again.
Goossen said he spent much of Monday filling the hole with sand, which will protect the new pipes from shifting.
Being a one-man public works department is tricky, Goossen said.
“It’s been a little tough getting used to it,” he said.
Esau and Griffin both worked for free on Sunday.
“The only individual being paid yesterday was Paxton, who’s kind of a temp,” Goossen said. “He comes in when there are emergencies when he can. He operates backhoes, and yesterday he jumped in the hole and did a lot of digging.”
Goossen is planning to hire a part-time worker this week, he said.
As of Tuesday, Goessel’s boil order was still in effect as the city waits for their test results to come back clean from KDHE.
If they do, the boil order will be lifted today.