Nick McWilliams reporting – Uhrichsville is dealing with the aftermath of a basement flood at the Uhrichsville Clay Museum at 330 Main Street.
Mayor Mark Haney told council on Thursday that the city had already hauled out a 30-foot long rolloff dumpster from the site of water damaged items, and will be taking electronic waste like computers and printers to Stark County to a recycling center.
He says that they were only made aware of the issue after meters were being checked, and they received a call about the incredibly high reading at the building.
“Service Director Belle Everett met with a plumber, and the bathroom sink pipe was repaired. The water company called us on Tuesday to report a high water usage. They said we were at 325,000 gallons of usage. It began on the second floor, went to the first floor, and made its way to the basement.”
The culprit was a water supply line for a sink on the second floor, which had a connection fail, leading to the water making its way from the top floor down to the basement.
According to Haney, he along with Service Director Belle Everett did not have keys to enter, with multiple keys now made to ensure there can be access at any time. Additionally, questions have arisen as to who was the last person in the building, and how the leak had gone undetected for so long.
HRN was contacted and called in for mitigation and repairs, the insurance company covering the building has been called, and any tangible metal is being taken to a scrap yard.
The mayor expressed appreciation to museum employees for a prompt response when the issue was discovered.
Artifacts were removed from the museum, and none were reportedly damaged from the leak.
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