Historical November–December 2020 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
In the last issue of The Times of Skinker DeBaliviere (available on the website http://sdtimes.org) the story of the planned installation of 5G towers was detailed.
The story has a new chapter.
The road to 5G is being paved in St. Louis by Verizon using the subcontractor ABD. Unannounced on Wednesday, October 14, the ABD contractor began digging small test holes and drilling deep underground on the north tree lawn of the 6100 block of Westminster to install the cables for their fiber. No one had been notified that this would commence, and the Alderwoman indicated on the scene that this was not the agreement in place with Verizon. Later that afternoon (around 6:30) the residents at 6120 Westminster discovered that there was no water service.
After contacting the Water Division’s emergency number, they were told that there was another water outage at 6106 Westminster and that a truck was on its way. That night both houses were provided with water by way of a hose connection to an adjoining house.
This is surprisingly possible, but only if the outdoor faucets are not up to code as the current code requires that water may not be allowed to enter the house through that faucet, only to leave it. Faucets are to prevent “back-flow.” Thursday all work stopped and no apparent progress was made, but water was available at those residences.
A call to the Water Division asserted that it was up to Verizon/ABD to get a plumber to fix this. Something lit a fire under the Water Division (and then Verizon, presumably), however, and digging by the ABD crew begin at around 8:00AM on Friday. For some reason the residence at 6120 lost water service again sometime after 8:00AM. (It is unclear how the hose link-up worked in the first place as the faucet at 6120 is up to code and may have started working as expected (preventing water from entering) on Friday. It’s a plumbing mystery.) Plumbers were also on the scene waiting for the excavators to make it possible for them to do their work.
Finally, by Friday at 5:00PM water service was restored at 6120 and the unsuccessful hose link-up removed. At 6106 the problem required the delivery and use of a BobCat to dig the necessary holes but reportedly water service was restored on Friday as well. At that address a hose link-up also provided water to 6106 during the outage with the assistance of the neighbor. Tuesday, October 20, the holes created by the original work and the required repairs were filled in with considerable heavy equipment and manpower evidently required.
This 5G installation has been a source of great consternation on the block for several months during which much conflicting information was coming from the company and its agents.
This episode is not unique, apparently. Similar water problems have occurred in south St. Louis according to two independent sources.
If you are wondering what the whole 5G thing is about, let us refer you to the article in the October 18, 2020, Post-Dispatch that provided a good starting point.
We have a copy of the article on the Times website.
Original photograph caption
Westminster excavation during five G installation.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November–December 2020.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2020_11.pdf, printed page(s) 1; PDF page(s) 1.
