Ozawkie’s drinkable water supply freezes, city works to create solution
OZAWKIE, Kan. (KSNT) – People in Ozawkie have been without drinking water for now 7 months, so the city has been keeping a large tank of water on hand for people who need clean water at their homes. Since temperatures have dropped below freezing, the city has had to drain the tank that holds all of the city’s drinking water and now they’re building a garage to hopefully keep the water from freezing.
The problem all started when the main well for the city of Ozawkie went under water in May because of flooding. Now the well has finally emerged but the ground is too wet to get equipment out to clean the well, continuing this now 7-month ordeal of not having clean drinking water.
“As one of the council members put it, we are all in this together and we just have to tolerate it until it’s fixed,” said Loren Lutes, the mayor of Ozawkie.
The solution is to build a heated garage to keep the tank from freezing.
“It’s like an overgrown R.V. port but we will be able to heat it and keep the tanker in it and bottled water in it so citizens at least won’t have a down grade due to the cold weather,” said Lutes.
The structure is expected to cost around $40,000 from city funds, but they hope to be reimbursed from state funds for most of the cost.
They hope to have heat in it by next week.