Shot affects Westerlo water

Thursday, November 19, 2015 - 12:56

WESTERLO — The town turned off all water last week to repair its water tank that had been shot with a bullet.

“It was shot a while back,” said Supervisor Richard Rapp. “The water tank is repaired.”

Officials called in the State Police, but “there was no way to know” where the shot came from, or whether it was random or on purpose, Rapp said.

Residents told Rapp that the town should have had a camera trained on the tank, he said.

“Who the hell’s going to have a camera?” Rapp said.

Town crews temporarily repaired the tank by plugging it, Rapp said, but the plug swelled.

Rapp said that town water was not off as long as expected; repairs took place over 24 hours, rather than 36, from Friday morning to Saturday morning. During that time, a crew contracting with the town’s insurance company emptied, then lowered, the storage tank, he said.

“They had to go inside it and fix it from the inside,” Rapp said. “It was covered by insurance.”

The cost of repairs was about $9,000, Rapp said.

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