By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 18, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B01
A doleful Andre Imperiale looked out the window of his Little Sicily Pizzeria in Lyndhurst as gallons of water streamed out of the ground in front of the building Tuesday afternoon.
“We suffer, that’s all,” Imperiale said as a pump installed by the Department of Public Works emptied a ditch dug to reach a break in a 10-inch water main along Ridge Road. “We can’t even wash our hands, we can’t do nothing.”
DPW Superintendent Matthew Ruzzo said 1,500 to 2,000 residents, as well as businesses and St. Michael’s School, were left without water from shortly after midnight Monday until 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, following the break near 469 Ridge Road. Ruzzo said the break was due to age.
Imperiale, who also owns three apartment buildings affected by the break, said he had to buy about 50 gallons of water to cook for the day.
He said the township should have had a water tanker on the street for residents and businesses, but Mayor Louis J. Stellato Jr., whose funeral home also was without water, said the break affected only a small part of the township.
“By the time you would get the tanker truck in, the service would already be back on,” Stellato said. “The Department of Public Works had fire hydrants in the area open all day long, so that if you wanted water, you could get it.”
Residents called the DPW building throughout the day to find out when water would be restored, Ruzzo said.
He said the outage affected residents and businesses from Ridge Road to Green Avenue and from Kingsland Avenue to Marin Avenue.
Not only was Chuck Catkos without water much of the day, but a DPW backhoe blocked the driveway to Flowers By Chuck at 469 Ridge Road.
One customer brought her own water for a shampoo at the Cutting Edge Salon, said Rick Franchino, a co-owner of the beauty shop. The shop, which should have been busy Tuesday afternoon because it was Senior Citizens Day, was for the most part without customers, said Pam Liddawi, Franchino’s partner.
Keywords: LYNDHURST; ROAD; WATER; ACCIDENT; BUSINESS
Caption: 2 COLOR PHOTOS – ROBERT S. TOWNSEND / THE RECORD 1 – Alfred Somme, left, filling a bucket with water from a hydrant on Forest Avenue in Lyndhurst on Tuesday, after a main break left part of the town without running water. 2 – Above, Lyndhurst public works employees using jackhammers to reach the broken main.
ID: 17355512 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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