By Spencer Hall, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
Residents of Hartman’s Mobile Home Park say they experienced minimal impacts from a water main break on Dec. 8th that resulted in dozens of homes being without water for about six and a half hours.
The Village of Valemount had to temporarily shut off the water due to a fracture in the water main. According to Valemount CAO Anne Yanciw, the shut-off lasted from about 8 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. on Friday and impacted a dozen homes on 9th Avenue, a few on Dogwood and all homes in Hartman’s Mobile Home Park.
The Village said it is not aware what caused the water line to fracture.
Most Mobile Home Park residents The Goat spoke to were at work during the water outage and thus weren’t impacted by the temporary shut-off. Those who were home said they were unable to flush their toilets, do dishes, wash their laundry or get a drink of water from their taps.
One resident, Marilyn Wheeler, said she was in the middle of doing her laundry when the water went off. Wheeler said at first she thought her pipes had frozen, but realized this wasn’t the case when a Village staff member came by her house with a water shut off notice.
Wheeler said she killed time during the shut off by getting together with her daughter, who also lives in the mobile home park, and going for a drive with her grandchildren.
She said ultimately the shut-off didn’t affect her too significantly.
Another resident said her family comes from a community where water shut-offs are quite common.
“Where we’re from, this used to happen a lot, so it’s nothing we aren’t used to,” the resident said.
