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MARCH 20, 2015
Chinatown: Part IV
Preview: Kimberley, Kamloops in KIJHL final | Page 9
Series on the history of Cranbrook’s Chinese community concludes
Regular season closing >
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Ice to meet Hitmen to finish season | Page 8
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Vol. 64, Issue 55
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Work of a watery weekend
Cranbrook city crews scrambled as pipes burst
TRE VOR CR AWLEY
A RNE P E TRYS HEN
Over the weekend, Cranbrook Public Works crews went into emergency mode as a number of pipes burst all over the south side of Cranbrook. The bursts happened late Saturday night and into Sunday morning. By Sunday night all but two of the leaks were fixed and by Monday morning they were all patched. On Wednesday Joe McGowan, director of Public Works, allowed this reporter to sit down with three of the water works crew that helped patch up Cranbrook’s leaking pipes and get residents’ water back up and running as fast as possible. They are Bruce Benson, senior utility operator, Jason Perrault, foreman, and Kent Keiver, lead hand. At 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night, there was a malfunction at Pressure Reducing Station no. 4. Each Pressure Reducing Station has a pilot control — miniature pressure valves. One of the components failed and caused over pressurization to that zone which caused the eight water main breaks. “There is a surge relief that doesn’t allow the valve to open up fully,” noted Perrault. “If that failed we’d have been even worse off.” The pressure reached 20 psi higher than the normal levels. But it was that sudden rush that found the weakest parts of the system at that time. Pressure Reducing Station 4 usually has a discharge pressure of 54 psi. McGowan said that water mains are designed to have a normal working pressure of 150 psi, with Perrault adding that they are usually tested at up to three times that. The first break was recorded at around 3:30 a.m. Benson said there were two
Kimberley to have fibre-optic by the fall
ARNE PETRYSHEN PHOTO
Three members of Cranbrook’s Public Works crew members that were instrumental in keeping Cranbrook residents’ houses from flooding and streets from washing away. They are: Kent Keiver, lead hand; Jason Perrault, foreman; and Bruce Benson, senior utility officer. Pictured in front is a cutout of one of the burst pipes, showing the points of pipe fracture. personnel out monitoring the leaks as they showed up. As the leaks surfaced, they had to decide whether they would shut them off right away — if they were in danger of flooding the neighbourhood with gush-
ing water — or throttle the pipes down to keep them on until crews got there to fix the leaks. At around 6:30 a.m. crews started to arrive, including contractors. Benson said they had about 20
workers in total out or headed out by then. Benson made the calls to locate the gas line, electrical and telephone lines — so crews could work around those lines. Six of the breaks were
fixed on Sunday. The last two breaks were not finished, so on one block crews fed hoses overhead so the houses could have water overnight.
See CREWS, Page 3
If all goes according to plan, Telus is hoping to have the first homes in Kimberley installed with fibre optic broadband Internet by June. Announced at the end of February, Telus staff has been working alongside Kimberley city staff and council to get the proper planning in place before beginning the process of connecting each home to fibre optic. Telus has made a $10.5 million investment into the community—without any government subsidization—in order to get the project off the ground. Zouheir Mansourati, Vice President of Broadband Implementation with Telus, said Kimberley is a test run of sorts to understand and work with the challenges of getting broadband into smaller, rural communities. “We felt at this point, with the [Tier] Three communities where there was a meaningful lack of broadband, access to the internet and to services that are very useful, we felt that we could come and practice what we need to do, strengthen our muscles, our knowledge and draw some lessons,” Mansourati. The process began last year as Telus began the consultation process with the community, according to Mansourati. That process is now over and it’s now time to go door-todoor to install the fibre optic cable. Mansourati said that contractors will request permission from each and every home and business to install the fibre optic cable drop. The work will be done for free and home or business owners can make the decision whether or not they wish to connect to the fibre optic network or keep their existing internet services.
See KIMBERLEY, Page 3