Water Bill

[slacker]

Irregular News for 03.26.07

 

Ford City, PA -- A church in Western Pennsylvania might need help from above for this one.

 

Ford City Council agreed last week to send the Second Baptist Church a big water bill.

 

Council members did not reveal the total, but church trustee Eugene Banks said one told him it was more than $2 million.

 

"I thought he was exaggerating," Banks said. " 'You got to be kidding me,' I said."

 

The bill is for water used when a line broke inside a vacant building the church owns but doesn't use.

 

There was no heat in the building because the gas company shut off service to change a meter last summer and did not restart service, Banks said.

 

When winter came, the water pipes froze and burst.

 

"The water was running for a month," Banks said. "We didn't know."

 

Water Department officials knew a lot of water in their system was being lost but could not find the leak, Councilman Homer Pendleton said.

 

Water rose to about six inches inside the building and poured out the front door into the street. It went unnoticed because of snow pushed there by snow plows, Pendleton said.

 

Banks called his church board to break the news.

 

Their response: "They said they'd believe it when they saw the bill."

 

Ford City, about 40 miles northeast of Pittsburgh and home to fewer than 3,500 people, does not have particularly deep pockets. Still, the borough does not expect the church, which has about 75 parishioners, will be able to pay the $2 million bill.

 

"We're hoping there is some insurance or we can negotiate a settlement," Councilman Dan Cousins said.

 

source

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

It takes alot of water to put the hell fires out!!