De-icing machine on its way to Cle Elum

[Guest Nicole]

CLE ELUM — A water line de-icing machine purchased by Windy Chevrolet to help with frozen water lines in Cle Elum is on its way and is expected to arrive early next week, Cle Elum City Administrator Rob Omans said Thursday.

City officials hope that will prove good news for city water customers with frozen lines.

Count among them members of the local Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation. The water line to the Kingdom Hall on First Street has been frozen for three weeks and three members of the congregation have spent the past three Saturdays trying to get the line unfrozen.

John Drageland, a church elder, said the congregation is coping. Members meet on Thursday nights and on Sundays, but only for about an hour and a half, he said.

“We have sewer service and we bring in water in water jugs to flush with,” he said Friday morning.

In an emergency members also are able to use facilities at his home which is nearby, he said.

The three plumbers who are working on the effort all have regular plumbing jobs which limits their availability to Saturday, Drageland said. A forecast for heavy snow this weekend complicates the question of how much progress they will be able to make.

Drageland, who said he’s been in the area 16 or 17 years, said it’s the most difficult situation he’s seen in that time. But he said those who have been in the community longer or whose families have been in the community longer say that “in the early days sometimes you didn’t get water back until May.”

City count now 7

Originally the city had reported about 50 customers without water but that estimate was later reduced to 38.

On Thursday, Omans said the number of customers who reported frozen lines to the city and did not have water service was now down to seven. Some customers who have frozen lines but were able to get water service by temporarily hooking up a hose from an outside faucet at their home to an outside faucet at a neighbor’s home are now reporting problems with the hoses freezing.

When that happens, the hoses need to be taken off and put inside to thaw, he said.

He added that customers using that method to obtain water need to be sure to keep water running, at a slow rate, to keep the lines from freezing.

Omans said city crews also were working Thursday on Third Street to tackle another issue that had developed. He said some lines had sprung leaks at connections.

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