COLONA, Ill. — The City of Colona has made a temporary fix to a well pump after it was damaged by storms.
The city originally asked residents in the downtown/Route 84 area to conserve water usage after a well pump was damaged by storms on Monday, July 4.
According to Mayor Rich Holman, one of the two well pumps serving the area was damaged by lightning Monday. The damage was enough to require the replacement of the pump, but that complete replacement will not happen until this fall, Holman said.
"The pump stopped working so we had to merge our other downtown pump with this well to make sure the city had full water usage," Holman said.
Water operator Tony Vincent with Colona's public work department was in charge of getting the water back on Thursday morning.
"We ran a jumper wire so we can at least run it, for now," Vincent said.
Vincent will be back this fall to help install a permanent fix. That's because water usage is less in the fall months when people are watering grass and filling up swimming pools less frequently, Holman said.
"When water usage goes down, we'll pull the well piping and take a look at the pump and probably replace it at that time," Holman said.
That replacement will put added pressure on the city's budget.
"Probably by the time we're said and done it'll probably be around $15,000 to $20,000 to complete the actual well process and put new piping and a pump at the bottom," Holman said.
Holman added it only cost the city a few thousand dollars for the temporary fix to be installed on Thursday.
The water pump was fully restored late Thursday afternoon. Residents should expect more normal water pressure with this temporary solution.
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