MAYOR'S MESSAGE

Craig A. Stough 9/7/2007

"Storm Damage at Water Pumping Station"

On Friday evening 8/24/07, a large storm passed through Sylvania with heavy rains, strong winds and considerable lightening. The Northview High School football game was postponed. Many homes lost power including my own in Lincoln Woods. What many in the community don't realize is that a very large tree fell on the City's water pumping station at Main and Brint. Thanks to the fast and effective responses of many City employees, the water system was kept pressurized and the event did not become newsworthy in the local media.

After power went out at my home that evening, I got in my car to check the size of the outage. Much of the City south of Convent was dark. Cats Stadium was lit, but the City Administration Building was dark. Circling around to Harroun Road, I found Brint Road closed and a large tree on top of the pumping station and across Brint Road. The pumping station emergency generator was running and Toledo Edison was on the scene.

A Division of Water employee who lives in the area of the electrical outage had responded immediately after the storm passed to check the status of the pumping station. A police crew was called to the scene for traffic control at Main and Brint where the traffic signals were out. A nearby Toledo Edison crew reported to the scene quickly and positioned their vehicle to keep traffic away from debris on the roadway and two damaged and leaning power poles, one with three transformers suspended near the road.

A Streets Division crew erected barricades. A tree removal crew was called in and was successful at removing much of the fallen tree. Division of Water employees manually operated the normally automated station, and kept the emergency generator running for almost 48 hours.

At the request of Toledo Edison, repair of the electrical service to the pumping station was delayed until the following day so it could be done in daylight. The pumping station was disconnected and isolated from the power grid by Toledo Edison so power could be restored to other customers, which it was to my home later that night. Toledo Edison power to the pumping station was finally restored at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday 8/26/07.

The masonry pumping station building was damaged when the tree fell on it. A brick parapet wall was crushed by the tree trunk and adjacent roof coping damaged, but the exterior masonry wall held up the tree trunk from crashing into the building. If the building had been steel or wood framed, the tree might have fallen through the roof and caused serious damage to the pumps or controls. The masonry parapet wall will be repaired after inspection by engineers, and other nearby trees will be evaluated for possible removal.

My heartfelt thanks to the many City employees who quickly responded and kept our water system pressurized. We are very fortunate in Sylvania to have so many loyal and skilled workers who will respond in an emergency and keep vital services operating. Because of their fast and effective response, this event did not become newsworthy as an interruption in water service would have. I am glad we didn't make the news, but I wanted you to know just the same.