To the City of Vicksburg Water Mains crew, thank you

On Sunday a 12-inch water main supply line broke causing water pressure to drop city-wide. Crews with the city worked Sunday afternoon and evening to minimize the leak and prevent the city from having to boil water for the next few days.

Alderman Michael Mayfield was at the scene of the leak and was out into the evening on Sunday. He was working with the crews and ensured they got whatever they needed to solve the water leak.

Thank you, Alderman Mayfield.

Dane Lovell from the Water Mains Department and his top players were on it Sunday. I personally watched them work to exhaustion, leaning on their trucks to catch their breath more than once.

They stayed at it for several hours trying to stop the water from escaping. Lovell has a device to monitor water pressure around town. He was watching those readings and could spout off all the critical pressures when asked. His team was successful in minimizing the leak and water pressure was heading the right way by 7:30 p.m. for most of the city.

Today the Vicksburg Daily News followed up on the leak to check on progress. What followed was a 42-minute live video of the water main crew working to contain that leak.

40,000+ people have watched this video at this moment. We all watched our city workers heroically get waist-deep in cold water on a cold day to try and fix that leak. None of them had waders and an impact wrench would have sped up the process. At the very least it would have reduced the strain on the men.

City of Vicksburg, congratulations on finding such fine and hard-working individuals who put themselves in harm’s way to get the job done. A finer work ethic does not exist and we all should be proud of this team of professionals who got the job done.