Fielder’s Choice

Clay Moore, a 30-plus-year employee of the Holly Springs Utility Department, said he’d never seen anything like this one.

On Tuesday of last week, a 6-inch water main broke on Cedar Hills, almost in front of my house.

My wife Pam saw the start of the repair effort when she went home for lunch that day.

Later in the afternoon, when she got home from work before me, she sent a text – “Be careful on our street. Still working. Many trucks.”

At 6 p.m., when I turned on Cedar Hills and neared home, the road was blocked briefly. But that was OK. I understood. And I was more than willing to park somewhere else and walk the short distance, if needed.

I got through in a few minutes, but then kind of kept up with the work for hours.

At about 8 p.m. or so, I took the guys some bottled water.

Ironically, there was plenty of water in that huge hole they had to dig out under the pavement to try to solve the problem, but of course, that wasn’t fit too drink.

Several workers shared with me the toughness of this task. I tried to tell them all how much I appreciated them, but the equipment was running loudly, and I’m not sure they all heard me.

At the same time, even as I handed them the bottled water, they just kept on working. And believe me, this was hard work. They were all wet and dirty and certainly tired.

I went back out about 10 or 11 p.m. when I saw Bill Stone, general manager of HSUD, on the scene. He had been by earlier but I missed him.

I praised the employees.

“Man, these guys are dedicated,” I said. “Surely, they’re not going to just keeping working through the night.”

Our water had been shut off for several hours, but no big deal. We were making it just fine on the home front, and we’d already planned to skip a shower Wednesday morning.

I went to bed around midnight. They were still out there, with the portable lighting in place, tackling the tough task.

During the early morning hours, my wife discovered we had water.

Then when I woke up for work Wednesday morning, I saw an update. The return of water was only temporary as the problem had not been totally solved. But again, that was OK. I personally knew how hard these guys were working.

“Crews were unable to isolate the line on Cedar Hills last night,” HSUD reported. “With some engineering assistance, we have developed a new plan, which, will unfortunately impact a larger area.”

Water service would have to be shut off at a valve at West Boundary and Chula homa.

About mid-afternoon Wed - nesday, workers were filling the huge hole. A few trucks and workers remained there until I guess 5 or a little after, and once again, we had water.

This was an almost-around-the-clock, 24-hour-plus project – and a determined effort by the HSUD workers.

I could go on and on and on about the dedicated work of serving the public that I saw firsthand from these men

I told Pam about 7 p.m. Tuesday, “Surely they are going home soon. They need some food and rest.”

Boy, was I wrong.

Thank you, HSUD, and particularly all the guys involved in this repair. This city resident is singing your praises.