Letter to the Editor: Water line emergency showed the best of our community

Dear Editor,

I am a current board member for the South End Water Users District that supplies water to residents on the outskirts of Cowley. We recently had a water line emergency when our water line had a failure. During this time we were reminded just how great our community is.

Our normal operator was out of town for training. As we scrambled to get all of our resources in order we had several very great things happen. We started to make phone calls to excavation companies to get anyone who could help us out.

Ty Sammons, owner of Sammons Excavation, dropped everything he had going to get us a machine to start the excavation within an hour of the initial call. Mac Grant came in to assist with the knowledge of locations of our water lines as he had learned much of this from his father over the years. Matt Leonhardt helped in assisting with locating and checking other areas of the water line for failures. Kenneth Powell (owner of KM Construction), a water user of the district, saw the excavation happening and stopped and volunteered his time well into the morning hours and the next day.

Dexter Woodis, our backup operator for the district, arrived as soon as he possibly could.  When the water line got too deep to be excavated effectively with the first machine we had obtained, Pete Baxendale, owner of Midway Construction, graciously offered us a larger excavator and gravel to bed the pipe.

All of these things allowed us to restore water to the district in a timely manner. Every place we needed help, someone was there to offer it. Furthermore, after the repair had been completed and we had reached out to Sammons Excavation and Midway Construction, they both graciously refused to charge us for the machines they had provided. These are the great people that we have in our communities.

On behalf of all the board members of the South End Water Users District, we extend our greatest gratitude to all of the individuals who were involved in one way or another. Thank you all for reminding us what a great community we have. 

Shane Brost, South End Water User District Board Member, with Owen Wantulok and Tuffy Brost