Mapleton Water Woes
The Mapleton Water District is once again experiencing problems with its water system. Millie Rochon the Vice-Chair of the Mapleton Water District says while it is unclear what the exact problem is they believe that a leak has developed somewhere in the system between the pump and the holding tank.
“We have to assume that there is a giant leak somewhere, there’s not even enough pressure to get water at the plants where they are pumping the water.”
Rochon said they experienced a problem before Christmas but were able to resolve it by rebuilding one of the pumps, but this issue she says is different. Everything came back on line for a time but since this new weather system moved in there has not been water available. In the meantime customers are asked to take precautions.
“We are trying to figure out where this leak is, we are trying to pump water but we need everyone to boil and conserve.”
Rochon says out of the 260 lines no one currently has a significant amount of water available.
PUD Outages
As of this morning there were still about 600 Central Lincoln PUD customers without power in the Florence area. Crews have been working through the night to restore power. At the height of the storm more than 1500 locations were without electricity. The heavy winds and rain caused damage all throughout the coastal region from Astoria to Gold Beach with as many as 50,000 locations without power. Locally downed trees crossed roadways blocking some streets. North Fork road residents reported a downed tree that took out a power pole. Wind and flood warnings have expired but drivers should continue to be cautious on streets as cleanup continues throughout the day today.
Fiber Expansion
Florence’s fiber internet provider, HYAK is hoping to begin a capital project in the coming year with an extension of its fiber service to more rural areas of western Lane County. Co-owner Robbie Wright says the project still has to undergo some planning that include finishing up paperwork on a 10.6 million dollar low interest loan from the US Department of Agriculture.
“There’s significant amount of work for us still to do. We’re still going back and forth with the USDA on that. We expect that to be wrapped maybe the end of January sometime in February”
Wright says they hope to be able to start running cable sometime in the second quarter of 2023. The build out could potentially serve about 1400 persons as well as two educational facilities, 28 businesses and 21 farms.
