By Marci Creps
Residents on Lorelei Way will be staying in a local hotel after their landlord turned off water in the neighborhood.
Tuesday, the roughly 25 residences had their water shut off when the health department found the neighborhood’s sewage lift station was overflowing. The water would be turned off until the station was pumped.
Resident Daniel Ponce said that landlord Matt Cascio did have a truck come out to the neighborhood Wednesday and pump the sewage lift station. Ponce said Cascio was told to have the process repeated in the afternoon. That didn’t happen.
“What he did was send his son to come and shut all the water off,” Ponce said.Ponce did go to the water main and restore the water, but it needs to be shut off so repairs can be made.
As a result, Ponce said the county stepped forward and secured hotel rooms until Sunday for the residents on Lorelei Way.
In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the state issued a stay-at-home order that took affect Wednesday. Ponce knew that it would be hard for everyone to stay home without water. When the water was shut off Tuesday, Ponce worried about his neighbors and his own family as no one was prepared for the water to be shut down.
Ponce understood the county’s need to deal with the overflowing sewage, but he was upset that the county didn’t give them any options other than paying to have the work done.
Ponce said he was grateful for the temporary housing, but he will be waiting to see what happens next as the neighborhood needs the landlord to solve the issue in the long term.
In a Facebook post on a page set up for discussing Monroe County aid for COVID-19, County Council member Geoff McKim wrote the issue was an engineering problem. He said the lift station can’t be fixed until it has been pumped and no additional water is flowing into the tank. He said the county arranged for the hotel suites to ensure no additional water enters the system. Then a technician can diagnose the problem and fix it.
The Bloomingtonian will continue to follow this story.
The following letter was sent by the Monroe County Health Department:
