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DURYEA — Residents of Simpson Street said Sunday that they hadn’t had water since Friday, and they couldn’t understand why.
In response, Susan Turcmanovich, Pennsylvania American Water representative, said that with frigid temperatures affecting our area for an extended period of time, the water company is getting crews and contractors out as quickly as possible to ensure its customers have water.
Herman Tinklepaugh, 7 Simpson St., said in spite of the company’s efforts, “three days without water is too many days.”
Tinklepaugh, 75, said that because of the cold temperatures, he has had to rely upon friends to bring him water.
“I pay my water bill every month on time and I don’t understand why the water company doesn’t respond in the same timely manner,” he said.
After realizing his home did not have water on Friday, Tinklepaugh immediately called the water company, he said.
“They did send out an employee early in the morning who said the pipe was frozen at the curb,” said Tinklepaugh. “When a second employee came back in the afternoon, he said the water line was frozen at the curb and the issue would be resolved by morning.”
Tinklepaugh said when the issue was not resolved on Saturday, he called the water company again and they assured him he would have water by Sunday morning.
When he did not have water on Sunday morning, Tinklepaugh said he again called the water company at 9:30 am and they said he would be put on an “emergency list,” for defrosting his water pipes.
Jane Dalessandro, who lives at 1 Simpson St. with her three children, said she had been away when the water problem began and did not feel she could return until her home once again had water.
Dalessandro has had to enlist the assistance of Tinklepaugh to place space heaters throughout her home.
“My home has hot water heat,” said Dalessandro, “so, not only did we not have water, we did not have heat.”
She said she was unclear as to who would be responsible for the cost of making the repairs, but believed because it is “under the jurisdiction” of the water company, the company should bear the cost of resolving the issue.
“Numerous calls to the water company resulted in the revealing that there are 15 instances of frozen pipe in our small town of Duryea,” she said, “with so many instances and with full knowledge of the climate, when does it become negligence on the part of the water company for not retrofitting their curb pipes to meet contracted needs of customers?”
As for Tinklepaugh, he said Sunday he hoped the Pennsylvania American Water would be out to correct the problem as early as Monday morning. But in the meantime, he said, “this is getting really disgusting.”
Turcmanovich said property owners are only responsible for maintenance of the water service line from the curb to the house, as well as any in-home piping.
“If its our equipment, it will be fixed at no cost to the customers,” she said.
In the meantime, she stressed that with frigid temperatures over an extended period of time, letting water trickle from faucets could prevent customers from experiencing loss of water service to their homes because of freezing.