To the editor:

On Dec. 28, 2023, the main water feed in the basement of our home burst below the shut off valve to the rest of the house.

Water was pouring on the basement floor and flooding the floor at an alarming rate. A frantic call to the village of Saranac Lake was placed and only minutes later the Department of Public Works was calling, noting they had a crew on the way to shut off the water to our property.

Three trucks with several DPW crew members arrived within 10 minutes of the DPW call. Unfortunately, when they arrived and started searching for the shut-off, they soon discovered there was no obvious shut-off to our home — not in our yard or the street (a dilemma that has persisted for decades).

Two of the workers went to the basement to assess the situation in the basement. They discovered my drenched-to-the-skin husband trying to cap the pipe. In the meantime, the other workers were diligently trying to find the water line to our home as well as a shut off — to no avail.

At that point it was decided among the workers to use a valve they had in a truck to cap the geyser in the basement to stop the flow of water flooding into the basement — flooding which was now dangerously close to the furnace on the other side of the basement as well as a couple of inches deep near the source of the geyser. The two workers, having gone back outside, then returned to the basement and were soon equally as drenched as my husband, but they were successful in capping the basement line and stopping the flow of water.

The two soaked workers and the other crew left our home with the promise they would be back to find the water line to our home and put a shut off in the yard. Less than an hour later (with the two drenched workers and my husband now dry), they were back with other equipment and successfully found the water line leading to our basement and were able to put a shut off on this water line so an event such as this one will hopefully not repeat itself in the future. There was some minor damage to the yard, but they were back the next morning to fill the holes and ruts created by their trucks.

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the DPW workers who came to our rescue. Thank you to all of you. This little phrase does not fully express our gratitude for your efforts to assist us.

Michael and Debbie Chabot

Saranac Lake