Boil Advisory Issued After Another Water Outage In Blaine
BLAINE, Minn. (WCCO) -- As the sun dipped down over Blaine, so too did the city's water pressure leading to a flood of complaints on social media.
"I would say it is frustrating because we have put things in place to prevent what happened last time," Blaine Public Services Manager Robert Therres said, "and here we are with low water pressure."
A month ago, a water shortage left Blaine dry for several hours. The city said it was because alarms designed to warn them when the water tower was low didn't sound off, but it's still a mystery what caused the problem this weekend.
Late in the evening, City Hall turned into an emergency operations center as public works crews fixed the pressure.
"We turned on some additional wells to restore to full pressure our system," Therres said.
That still didn't stop people from stocking up on bottled water. One gas station attendant in town said a couple customers came in complaining about the water shortage before buying bottles.
The Anoka Hennepin School district decided to cancel class Monday for Blaine Schools, including Adventures Plus before and after-school care and preschool. The district said in a statement that a decision on evening activities will be made by noon Monday.
The district said students who get picked up at a Blaine school but attend another school will still have a bus waiting to transport them.
The closed schools include: Jefferson Elementary, Johnsville Elementary, Madison Elementary, University Avenue Elementary, Roosevelt Middle School, Blaine High School.
While city officials say they weren't able to tell if the loss of pressure was enough to warrant a boil advisory, they are issuing one as a precautionary measure. Residents should follow boil instructions as outlined by the Minnesota Department of Health.
In an interview with WCCO Radio, Blaine mayor Tom Ryan said he was at City Hall working to solve the problem.