Ferris goes dry over the weekend

FERRIS – Mayor Pro Tem and acting Mayor/City Manager Tommy Scott is asking the citizens to use water with care.

The city is also offering a $1,000 reward for the capture and prosecution of the person who opened a fire hydrant and ran the city’s water source dry over the weekend.

It is estimated the hydrant was activated late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

In addition, a water line break were discovered at Lucy Mae McDonald Elementary which went unoticed for several days because of the weekend.

“I need the residents to not use the water for a few days and let the tanks fill up,” Scott said in a press conference Monday afternoon. “When the fire hydrant was open it let out a lot of water and it drained both of the tanks – from what I understand. They shut the valves off and let the tanks fill, but when that is done everyone starts using water and it runs on one side of town, but the other side of town does not get any water.”

Scott said he hopes all the residents will help out and give the tanks time to refill.

“Residents can take a light shower, no washing or washing cars or watering the lawn. Just give us a couple of days and do not use any excessive water,” Scott said.

Currently the water from Rockett is coming in, but Scott said it might be up to 30 days before everything is back to normal.

“Once they put the [water] line in we will have water flowing for everyone,” he added. “They are going to have to put the pipe in and then we have to get a larger pipe to put in that reaches across town and then everyone will have the proper water they need. We need the citizens to help us with this because it takes awhile to fill up the tanks and Rockett will only let us have so much pressure on their end because it causes a problem when we increase the pressure.”

The water issue is Ferris is becoming a serious situation.

Earlier in the summer, the same type of water tank incident occurred. At that time, water was disrupted on the east side of town when the water tower supplying water to residents living on that side of the city drained.

It was discovered several underground valves had been suspiciously turned off.

The Ferris police investigated two former city works employees, both of whom had been rumored to be upset with the city over its hiring policies. Ferris Public Safety Director Eddie Salazar confirmed a polygraph was taken of one of the suspects, but it was determined there was no criminal activity involved.

Tampering with public water systems is a felony and could carry a penalty of imprisonment.

If anyone see the tampering with of the water tanks or hydrants in Ferris call 911 or Ferris City Hall immediately.

“There were a record number of parade entrants and vendor booth participants whom we would like to give a big “thank you” for helping to make it a very successful day,” Griffin concluded.”

Entertainment was provided by Red Oak Opry, Elvis impersonator Carl Cassady.