A little over a week ago, I came home from work and saw water shooting up out of my next door neighbor’s yard about 10 feet into the air. After reminding myself that my neighbor did not have a fountain in his yard, I went over and knocked on his door. His said an underground water line had broken and the city was on their way to fix it. A little while later they came over and put in a temporary fix and told him they would have to come back and dig the whole thing up and replace a section of pipe. They also told him since it was in his yard, he would have to pay for it.
Yesterday I came home for lunch and the city workers were three houses down digging up another neighbor’s yard. I thought that was weird to have two problems 3 houses apart. But I didn’t think a lot of it.
My 3 year old wanted to see the big hole, so he and I walked down there. I asked the 2 workmen what they were doing and they said they were supposed to fix a broken water main, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with it.
I restrained myself from laughing. I also restrained myself from telling them they were at the wrong house. I just said “Well, happy digging,” and started back home. We were getting to the front steps when the city inspector pulled up in his pick up. I knew he was the city inspector because it said so on his truck. I told my little one we were going to sit on the porch and watch a while. He didn’t care. He knew he had some time till Curious George came on.
The inspector stepped out of his truck and his face turned the same color as the faces of those female Russian weight lifters trying to squat 300 pounds in the Olympics this week. Then he let out a few words I didn’t really want my three year old to hear. But it probably wasn’t much worse than what my wife says when I wake her up to iron my shirts. So we sat and watched a while then went in and watched Curious George.
I think he didn’t tell them because they where going to charge the other guy the the price of fixing the pipe because it was on his property so he wanted to give them a little hassle you know make them do 2x the work.
Ah, that explains it. It was the workers that were gonna charge that guy, of course. And I’m sure the owner of the house wouldn’t mind having his garden all dug up for a little bit of petty revenge on someone else’s behalf.
That’s a good question. It was something about the entire chain of events, including what my neighbor said when they originally told him he would have to pay for it (I can’t repeat it in a family forum).
Last time I checked, people paid for water service. Having water piped to your house is not a right that is guaranteed every US citizen.
Furthermore, in most cities, the service is only provided to your property. It’s the property owner’s responsibility to get the water from the property line into their house… and his responsibility to promptly fix any mains leaks, lest he drain the city’s water supply.
well, it was someone elses fault. You can easily hit wires/mains if you dont have locates, and decided to do some stupid digging, or pulling with something. I know that some landscapers use augers to put a hole in the ground for plants, and end up going really really deep, and cause you to have a few fountains in the middle of gardenish area, and end up having to dig in a lot of places to find it, and have to dig up a plant to fix a pipe. (which, to be honest, sucks)
i’m guessing he, or someone else was digging without knowing what was in the ground, (which is in some cases ilegal). Ignorance isnt an excuse in that.
Since people are determined to turn my non-serious thread into a serious one, I should probably add a couple of details.
In summer of 2006, everyone on my block was assessed around $7000 per lot for new water lines, sewer and street paving. The line that broke is 2 years old.
Secondly, every third house has an outlet that comes up to just below ground level that gives the city access to the water lines. The spot where it broke was just below the city’s access.
My neighbor was not digging. The break happened on its own.
Damn, my water main snapped twice in a year a couple of years ago under my drive and garden, but at the time it was 88 so it didn’t seem so unreasonable.
