The City of Moose Jaw is advising all residents that due to a water main break, a portion of 9th Avenue Northwest will be closed for the remainder of the week as repairs take place.

The water main break will cause 9th avenue NW between Fairford St and Montgomery St to be closed temporarily, including the intersection of 9th Avenue and Caribou Street.

Some residents have had trouble with water discolouration, Darrin Stephanson is the Utilities Manager with the City of Moose Jaw, and shed some light on the issue.

"Even with the discolouration in the water, it's still safe to drink, all that is, is some iron deposits from the cast iron pipes in the system. It doesn't affect quality as far as health, obviously, it's not pleasing aesthetically. Once the system calms down which generally happens fairly quickly after we get it controlled, obviously that discolouration is floating around in the water that's been stirred up and usage is what's going to remove it."

The water main break also caused a portion of a sewer main on 9th Ave to be penetrated and blown out, resulting in some homes in the area to experience some sewer backups.

Stephanson added that he estimates the water main to be fixed by the end of today, January 14th, and the sewer could take as long as tomorrow, January 15th.

William Grayson School has been heavily affected by the water main break, it left students and staff without running water for a couple of days but, crews have been hard at work restoring the basement draining the water and checking and repairing the damage.

The water has been turned on again finally with the basement expected to be up and running again by the end of the week.

Director of Education, Tony Baldwin gave the current status.

"So our status today is we have a great crew from Winmar in there doing the cleanup, I was over there this morning and there were no more pools of water laying around anymore. School is operating as normally as it can but the gym will be out of commission at least until the end of the day."

The school and the school division will be in constant contact with parents to give updates on the situation using voice messages, as well as emails or apps.

The following email was sent out by Principal Bruce Fritzler on Monday;

 

"Hello, families of William Grayson School.

We wanted to update you on the city's water main break and our school's lower level flooding as a result:

1) The city has apparently found the source of their water main break and it appears to be North West of the school on 9th Avenue North.

2) At this time we are unsure of what that means for WG's water being turned back on for washroom toilets/sinks and fountains for Tuesday and beyond this week.

3) City of Moose Jaw staff, PSS 210 Facilities, along with Winmar, Prestige and other such companies are working hard along with our own facilities staff to ensure all cleanup and maintenance to affected areas on our lower level are being done as soon as possible.

4) Please note the clean up is only clean water and not sewage water as no sewer backups have occurred within the school.

5) PSS 210 is keeping buckets of water available to flush toilets and use it in sinks on the main floor and have provided us with bottled water for drinking for students and staff. As well they have delivered boxes of hand sanitizer as well.

So:

1) The school will remain open for business and all staff will be at work. Classes and programs are continuing as much as possible and the 2 classrooms on the lower level have relocated upstairs for now. Obviously all gym and computer room classes are not able to occur at this time. All practices and home games for the basketball teams at WG are also cancelled until further notice.

2) Decisions for student attendance is at the discretion of parents. If you choose to have your child at home we ask you please inform the school at 306-692-4659.

3) We will send another update on the situation affecting us tomorrow morning at 8 AM.

Thanks for your understanding and support during this time.

Bruce Fritzler

Principal

William Grayson School"