Police want to know who vandalized a Maumelle water well by cutting wires causing thousand of dollars in damage. Now, it means Maumelle’s mandatory water conservation order could last longer than expected.
The vandalized well put workers a couple of days behind schedule as they try to get the city’s water supply back up to the demand.
Even with Tuesday’s rain, lawns remain brown in Maumelle because people can only water once a week.
Kevin Robinson takes good care of his yard and meticulously pulls mushrooms out of his lush green grass to keep it healthy. Right now, Robinson can only water on trash day.
“I can’t choose which day I want to water. So, like, it rained yesterday. Today would be my day to water. I don’t want to water today, I’d rather wait til Thursday or Friday,” says Robinson.
It really bothered him when he found out someone vandalized one of the wells providing water to Maumelle, especially during the mandatory conservation order.
“That’s kind of disturbing. For people to not have respect for an entire community. Even if it was just a prank, that’s not right,” he said.
Barry Heller with Maumelle Water Management does not know if it’s a prank.
“There are some pretty irate people in town over the last two weeks because of the water restrictions we’ve put in place,” says Heller.
Sometime Sunday, someone took a boat to well twelve and snapped several wires causing $2,000-$4,000 in damage.
This is one of the wires the vandals cut, but left it behind. Workers found it tied around a bush by the river.
Heller thinks the vandals knew exactly what they were doing.
“If you had cut those wires wrong, at the least you would have gotten a really bad shock. At worst, you would’ve killed yourself,” says Heller.
If caught, the vandals could face federal charges.
“It’s a sick joke, and hopefully they catch the person if it really was vandalism and they bring them to justice,” says Robinson.
After well twelve gets back online, Maumelle Water Management plans on allowing twice a week watering.
So far, the water company has gotten a few complaints of people violating the conservation order, but hasn’t locked any meters which means no one has had to pay the $200 fee to restart service.
The vandalized well put workers a couple of days behind schedule as they try to get the city’s water supply back up to the demand.
Even with Tuesday’s rain, lawns remain brown in Maumelle because people can only water once a week.
Kevin Robinson takes good care of his yard and meticulously pulls mushrooms out of his lush green grass to keep it healthy. Right now, Robinson can only water on trash day.
“I can’t choose which day I want to water. So, like, it rained yesterday. Today would be my day to water. I don’t want to water today, I’d rather wait til Thursday or Friday,” says Robinson.
It really bothered him when he found out someone vandalized one of the wells providing water to Maumelle, especially during the mandatory conservation order.
“That’s kind of disturbing. For people to not have respect for an entire community. Even if it was just a prank, that’s not right,” he said.
Barry Heller with Maumelle Water Management does not know if it’s a prank.
“There are some pretty irate people in town over the last two weeks because of the water restrictions we’ve put in place,” says Heller.
Sometime Sunday, someone took a boat to well twelve and snapped several wires causing $2,000-$4,000 in damage.
This is one of the wires the vandals cut, but left it behind. Workers found it tied around a bush by the river.
Heller thinks the vandals knew exactly what they were doing.
“If you had cut those wires wrong, at the least you would have gotten a really bad shock. At worst, you would’ve killed yourself,” says Heller.
If caught, the vandals could face federal charges.
“It’s a sick joke, and hopefully they catch the person if it really was vandalism and they bring them to justice,” says Robinson.
After well twelve gets back online, Maumelle Water Management plans on allowing twice a week watering.
So far, the water company has gotten a few complaints of people violating the conservation order, but hasn’t locked any meters which means no one has had to pay the $200 fee to restart service.
