Water Is Coming To Palo

By Justin Foss, Reporter

Most of the city of Palo was under water Friday, June 13, 2008, as the Cedar River continued to rise. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

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By Justin Foss

PALO - If you live in a big town, this won't mean anything to you. But to the people in Palo, it's a sign of the future.

"For a small community like Palo, to have it's own water supply is a big step," said Megan Murphy with the city of Palo.

Until now, the entire city ran off of private wells in backyards. But the flood contaminated those shallow wells with bacteria. To this day, many are still not clean enough to pass state tests.

"Generally, people take water for granted, it takes a disaster to make people realize how important a resource it is for a community to have," said Murphy.

The water supply is open all the time at the fire station, just bring your jugs.

The city is hoping to transition completely to public water in the next few years, according to Tom Watson who runs the infrastructure in town.

But, water is still causing headaches in town.

The city has a list of homes they need to demolish. To do that, they need to spray water on the home to keep the dust and possible asbestos at bay.

But they're not spraying on Tuesday. That's because any water they would put on the homes would freeze, and ice just doesn't do the job.

The state won't let cities demolish homes when it's below freezing.

But the city says the homes will eventually be demolished.

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