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Sewage floods Helena Intermediate
Published Wednesday, October 8, 2008
HELENA — The malfunction of a city sewage station has closed Helena Intermediate School for the remainder of the week.
Photo by Corey Nolen
Crews work to clean Helena Intermediate School on Wednesday.
Cindy Warner, spokesperson for Shelby County School, said a city pumping station located next to the school shut down Tuesday night, causing sewage to back up in the school’s drains and pipes. By Wednesday morning the sewage flooded 60,000 square feet of the 160,000 square-foot building, forcing classes to be canceled until at least Oct. 14.
Servpro cleaning was called to restore the school. All sewage had been sucked off the floors by mid-morning Wednesday, but the school will be left empty through the weekend to allow a thorough cleaning and disinfecting, according to Warner.
“We do want to stress that providing a safe environment is our number one concern and we’ve brought in a team of experts (to clean up the school),” Warner said. “We will be relying on them to tell us that it is completely safe and clean. We won’t return until we know that it is safe.”
Warner said the school system looked at the possibility of relocating classes to another location for Thursday and Friday, but determined it would be too hard to do, because “we’re pretty full.”
At this time, the school system is talking with the state to see if the three days of classes that will be missed will need to be made up. Parents will be notified when that decision is made, Warner said.
Shelby County schools are closed Monday, Oct. 13 for Columbus Day.
Comments
Posted by siluriadude (anonymous) on October 9, 2008 at 6:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The sad part of this story is this is not the first time this has happened. the mayor of helena and his staff chose to take no action when this pump failed the first time and flooded the school. When elected officials sit on their hands and don't correct problems when they occur how can we as taxpayers have any faith in our elected and appointed officials
Posted by tidefm (anonymous) on October 9, 2008 at 4:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I assume and hope that the city is paying for this and not the board of education!!
Posted by BamaNana5 (anonymous) on October 11, 2008 at 1:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why is there a repeatedly malfunctioning sewage pumping station STILL, yes, STILL located next to this school??
Helena needs to clean house concerning your elected officials - apparently THEY don't have students in this school. Who knows what kind of diseases these students will contract and how many unspeakable germs are hiding in floor & wall cracks. Glad I don't work there, or have students attending there.
Posted by MadHatter50 (anonymous) on October 13, 2008 at 9:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Why do the parents not get together and take their complaint to the Helena City Council in mass? This how democracy works. If you want things fixed then roll up your sleeves and take on the City and bring about change. Do not just sit at your computer and complain and do not complain to your friends on the phone.
Take the matter before the City Council and let them know your concerns. Children are our most precious resource.
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