The Maple City suffered a “very large break” in a “major” water distribution line Monday morning that has temporarily shutdown public schools, the college and the town’s biggest employer.Monmouth College and Monmouth-Roseville District 238 canceled classes and Smithfield Foods suspended operations for at least Monday and Tuesday.
The break was discovered Monday morning according to City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher, at the corner of 5th Street and Euclid Avenue, adjacent to North Park and on the edge of the college’s campus.
City workers initially attempted to make the necessary repairs but found there were no valves.
“So we tried to repair/replace the break under live flow, unfortunately we just couldn’t pump the water out of the hole fast enough to make the necessary repairs which meant we had to shut down our water plant,” Steinbrecher says.
Steinbrecher says the repairs have been made by city employees and the water plant was back online as on 12:30 p.m.
However, Monmouth is under a boil order until further notice due to the drop in pressure from the water distribution system.
