Central Arkansas Water had a public comment read into the record at Monday’s North Little Rock City Council meeting. The statement praised North Little Rock’s cooperation and help during last week’s record winter weather.

The statement follows.

Central Arkansas Water wants to thank North Little Rock for your outstanding cooperation during the past week’s unprecedented snowstorm that enabled CAW to keep everyone provided with water service.

From police and fire employees to the mayor’s office, the North Little Rock team played a big role. You all helped us find broken water mains and ruptured fire services flooding vacant buildings that were putting a strain on the water distribution and treatment systems. When you could have said, “It’s not my problem,” you instead dug in and supported CAW’s team in locating the leaks. Thanks to that teamwork, Central Arkansas Water did not lose pressure anywhere in its system.

An example – At 10:30 p.m. Thursday night, North Little Rock police officers were helping CAW find broken fire services in the east downtown vicinity from East Washington to the railroad yard. Several were found and turned off, which as a result increased pressure throughout our system and helped us conserve water. Around that same time, I was able to contact North Little Rock Sewer Department Superintendent Greg Pilewski, who then woke up some of his staff and by 5 a.m. had identified several water leaks and breaks within their school.

Everyone was working together, and by doing so we avoided the headlines of Texas and other Arkansas communities. We cannot thank the North Little Rock team enough for their role in keeping water service provided. We will provide a more complete report at a later date, but we wanted to reach out now to thank you for the teamwork.

--- Central Arkansas Water CEO Tad Bohannon

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