Acording to WRGB.com, the same water main at princetown broke AGAIN last night.
At this rate, we will be boiling water until MLK day. Its making the town look like the keystone cops

Rotterdam Highway Superintendent Longo was interviewed by CBS6 news.  He stated that at this time of year and under these weather conditions that all municipalities experience broken pipes with the freezing, thawing, heaving, etc. of the ground.  

I can't help ask, however, why we have had four breaks in four days and there have been no other reports of broken
water mains in other towns or cities.

Has our infrastructure been maintained as required?

The Thing that gets me is the Main on Altamont Ave has ruptured no less than 2 or 3 times in the past few years... and now we even fix a problem and it just happens again?... Why are we putting bandaids on a serious problem that needs to be fixed

Why doesn;t Longo admit that he is over his head and doesn't have a clue on how to remedy this other than patch and hope?

He can say whatever he wants to wrgb, the facts speak for themselves. We are only town with issues at this time and the same line has broken 3 times in the last 3 days.

FDG being in the pool business understands about water.

plan (a)
all waterlines will be replaced with sch 40 - all you need is a saws-all and super glue

every thanksgiving he will blowout the lines add a little antifreeze and we will never have a break again.

plan (b)
FDG will take advantage of this comment and now know that potable water is a commodity

build a second source line to "the pond so large you could sail a ship in" with a giant water meter

wait for a water main break and all the town tanks to drain

he will hold out till Mr.G and the rest of town residents say "uncle" and pay for his
town, county, school taxes, and Mr. Surprised buyout when the water flows

in all seriousness  - maintenance... this is government, they don't maintain; they bond, because the cost of maintenance turns off the voters.

we are all crying now... so now we can bond  

and this will be brought to the press as progress

if you need water you may be able to buy it in paper 1/2 gallons from stewerts and save the deposit.
the paper 1/2 gallons from the milk plant is their secret to being open when others are closed

Quoted Text

UPDATE: Another water main break in Rotterdam

December 29, 2009 5:48 AM
Chris White


ROTTERDAM -- The same water main on Princetown Road that broke over the weekend broke again Monday night.

Crews were on the scene through the night trying to fix the damage and were still there as of 6 a.m.

The latest break means the boil water advisory imposed over the weekend will remain in effect even longer.

The town’s highway supervisor told CBS 6 these breaks are more common for all municipalities in the winter months because frost gets into the ground and the ground heaves.

http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/rotterdam-1269746-break-main.html

Water mains usually break after a prolonged period of extreme cold and then a quick thaw. We haven't experienced that kind of cold yet this year and IMHO this is just due to an aging infrastructure which has been neglected for years. Wait until we see the enormous bill we're going to get from the town in our water bills to pay for these outages.

Quoted Text

ROTTERDAM
Town water woes persist with new break
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore contributed to this report.

    Rotterdam’s water woes are far from over.
    Late Monday, the water main broke again, just hours after workers thought they had completed their two-day emergency repair.
    A police officer driving by the site on Princetown Road saw water bubbling up onto the road, police said. By 10:30 p.m., Highway Superintendent James Longo was investigating the break. It was not yet clear how difficult the repair would be.
    Whether or not it is repaired overnight, the news means that Rotterdam will still be on a boilwater advisory today. Almost the entire town has been forced to boil drinking water since the Princetown Road water main broke on Saturday.
    Longo said Saturday’s break was the worst he’d seen in all his years working with the town. He said the 20-inch pipe is among the many in Rotterdam that are more than 50 years old and now starting to show age.
    The busted main was repaired early Monday morning, leading officials to hope that the town’s water pressure would be back to normal today. That may no longer be the case.
    Nearly all of the town’s water tanks were emptied as a result of the first break, which left hundreds of homes without any water and thousands more with hardly any water pressure.
    “All five of our tanks were almost totally drained,” Longo said.
    As a result, water in Rotterdam became a scarce commodity over the weekend. Princetown Road resident Kevin March, one of the many who endured a weekend without water, had to drive to a McDonald’s on Altamont Avenue to fi nd a bathroom to use before heading to bed Sunday evening.
    “I had to run halfway across town to find a working bathroom,” he said. March was critical of both the outgoing Town Board —all fi ve members — and the incoming administration for not being more vocal when so many residents were affected. He wondered why neither board seemed eager to have a say during the break.
    “Nobody has anything to say when nobody has water on Christmas weekend,” he said.
    March was also among the many that also didn’t receive the initial boil-water advisory from the rapid notify system privately contracted by Schenectady County. The system calls all affected residents with a recorded alert message, provided they have a listed phone number.
    Likewise, Patty Miner of Careleon Road said she didn’t receive notification about the water issues and was perplexed by the sudden drop in pressure. She wasn’t able to reach the town’s Water Department on Sunday and only learned of the break by calling the Rotterdam police.
    “It’s very frustrating when you’re totally in the dark,” she said.
    The system often doesn’t reach residents using cell phones or those with unlisted numbers, explained John Nuzback, the county’s acting emergency management director. He said these residents likely didn’t receive any of the three alerts issued throughout Rotterdam over the weekend.
    Nuzback plans to work with the company early next month to help bring some of the county’s unlisted numbers into the system. He said these people can subscribe to the rapid notify system while keeping their unlisted numbers confi dential.
    “That way, their number isn’t published, but we have it for our database,” he said.
    The news of the second break came just as officials were predicting that all would be well. The town had already passed one drinking water test Monday afternoon and was hoping to lift the boil-water advisory after one final test this morning.
    In total, there were two pipes that broke over the weekend. A much smaller rupture was discovered on a six-inch main in Colonial Manor, but Collins said the leak could have formed days before the much larger break.

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00802&AppName=1

I hate to be a jerk...but watch the news from time to time...you'll know about the problems....heard about it by noon on saturday...and certainly don't slay  the poor dispatchers at the pd who have to field all the calls...they only know what the Highway Dept. tells them....

AGAIN the water line broke? Yer kiddin' right? Heavy traffic on Mariaville and Princetown Rds? Then what about Rt7 & Curry Rd's? The roads that tractor trailers frequent much more than Mariaville and Princetown. And although I understand how the weather can compromise water pipes........doesn't anyone take this into consideration BEFORE these lines break? It will be interesting to see how much these repairs cost as compared to general preventative maintenance.

Rotterdam has an antiquated infrastructure. A moratorium on any new development should have been put into place years ago while a new comp plan was created and the infrastructure updated.

Quoted from thisisawesome

I hate to be a jerk...but watch the news from time to time...you'll know about the problems....heard about it by noon on saturday...and certainly don't slay  the poor dispatchers at the pd who have to field all the calls...they only know what the Highway Dept. tells them....

Then don't be a jerk. Sure people can turn on the news, but they clearly do not report little rotterdam's problems every five minutes. It's sometimes on the hour. When a simple 2 minute call to the PD, which is the hub for rotterdam residents on a weekend, is quicker. So they have to field the 'water' calls.....big deal.......this isn't the city of schenectady.
And unless some of these people have unlisted phone numbers, the county's emergency reverse calls didn't work.

according to wrgb.com, the breaks have been fixed and the boil-water notice has been lifted

Yeah...that entire 30 seconds it took to go to a web page or replay the first 30 seconds on ch 9 news was harsh man...harsh...I don't have a
fancy degree or anything like that but my guess...just common sense......if I don't have water pressure....I check my basement...no water leaking there.....pipes aren't frozen.....no water spewing from my front yard....probably a problem with the feeder system...again..just common sense..which it appears that many....many people don't have these days.....it'll get fixed when it's fixed...provides me with a good reason to take my family out for a day trip catch up on some quality time....but then again what do I know right...I'm just a jerk...ha ha ha

I just received a call that also said the boil water notice was lifted.

Quoted from thisisawesome

Yeah...that entire 30 seconds it took to go to a web page or replay the first 30 seconds on ch 9 news was harsh man...harsh...I don't have a
fancy degree or anything like that but my guess...just common sense......if I don't have water pressure....I check my basement...no water leaking there.....pipes aren't frozen.....no water spewing from my front yard....probably a problem with the feeder system...again..just common sense..which it appears that many....many people don't have these days.....it'll get fixed when it's fixed...provides me with a good reason to take my family out for a day trip catch up on some quality time....but then again what do I know right...I'm just a jerk...ha ha ha

Hey relax....I wasn't calling you a jerk. I was just reiterating what you posted previously. My statement was based on interactions I had with people. Saturday & Sunday..... at Price Chopper, there were senior's in line that actually thought that maybe they had a broken pipe underground on their property. They didn't watch the news and don't use computers. Then another time I was at Redwood, where there was a young couple, first time home owners, that also thought the problem was theirs. This was their first experience with anything like this. There were seniors and young homeowners in my neighborhood who also didn't know what happened.

And yes they did call the PD, because people still believe that it is the PD that has the pulse on the community. I'm sure if it were a week day, the town hall would have received the calls. Maybe. Cause people still rely on their PD for information.Perhaps these calls did cause extra work for the PD, but obviously, residents still rely on them for their safety and security.I look at that as a positive these days.

And I also find it quite refreshing that people still opt for an old fashioned phone call to their local PD than running to their computers or TV. People still find it more comforting to actually talk to a human being. IMHO

And really, I wasn't calling you a jerk....k?