KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A water main break that has been bubbling water for — we’re told — at least six weeks is frustrating area businesses.
“It is a lot of water and just six weeks of this just running out that’s a lot of water,” said Lorne Mavon, with Gaines Furniture Outlet.
Holiday furniture across the street says businesses along here have been dealing with several breaks on Truman Road over the last few weeks. Her water has been turned off twice now for several days at a time. The leak next to her business is now fixed but she says the one next to Gaines just keeps going and going. Both businesses say it’s hurting them.
“We have a lot of traffic that comes through here and it’s really dangerous,” Holiday said, “you have hundreds of cars coming down Truman Road and water splashing everywhere, it hurts business and people they didn’t want to stop and park there, so it’s been a mess, a nightmare.”
KCMO Water Services Spokeswoman Jennifer Kincaid says a contractor was supposed to fix this problem when it was reported in September, but dropped the ball.
“We did know it fell through the cracks and we reassigned it to our own crews so we could elevate it and get it done quicker,” Kincaid said.
Kincaid adds that this all boils down to a communication problem between computer systems. She says a 12 million dollar plan in the works will fix that so things like this don’t happen.
“This is one of the things we’re committed to doing is our customers will see improvements in issues like this being taken care of more swiftly and less wait times for it to be taken care of,” she said.
The area businesses were also concerned about sink holes or the stability of the road since the water has been rushing for so long. Kincaid said that shouldn’t’ be a concern since the water is flowing above ground but the crews will have a better idea as they begin work on the problem Thursday night.
