Second Update: Water main break gives hundreds of middle school students a vacation day

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A broken water main beneath Ninth Street on the block between Meyer Middle School resulted in the cancellation of classes Wednesday, Feb. 22. River Falls Municipal Utilities General Manager Carl Gaulke later reported that the breakage was repaired by 10 a.m. Superintendent Tom Westerhaus said there was no water damage at Meyer.

Westerhaus alerted all parents and staff by way of the River Falls School District's automated calling program shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Westerhaus apologized for having to call everyone connected with the district but the program apparently can't differentiate parents who have children at one school or another.

Water could be seen bubbling from a crack in the middle of Ninth Street about 100 feet from the southeast corner of the school early Wednesday morning.

Gaulke said this was the fifth time in the last decade for that section of water main to break, and the second time the breakage and street flooding had forced the middle school to close.

"It's unusual for that to happen and just an unfortunate situation," Gaulke said, adding that this particular water main is about 50 years old, but that the pipes should last 90-100 years.

The pipe break, he said, happened around 5 a.m.

A local contractor, Total Excavating (formerly F & K), began fixing the breakage shortly after 8 a.m.

Gaulke didn't know how much water was spilled from the breakage. He said the cause was not due to freezing and unfreezing from winter weather.

Gaulke said RFMU will consider a plan on whether to replace the break-prone water main in the next year.

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