LEWISTON — About 300 households received notice Tuesday morning that they’d be without water most of Wednesday related to work on a new bridge crossing Main Street.
Stefanie Mills, owner of the Robin’s Nest day care on Switzerland Road, said it wasn’t nearly enough time to let parents know she’d have to close.
“The state rules and regulations state that as long as I have a way to flush the toilet and wash their hands I can stay open, but I refuse to use alcohol-based sanitizer on children who still put their hands in their mouths all the time,” Mills said Wednesday.
She watches children from four families. Two found alternative arrangements and in the other two cases, parents stayed home.
Another commenter on social media said there were three day cares in the affected area, which covered Main Street from Memorial Avenue to Stetson Road and Stetson Brook Estates.
Kevin Gagne, deputy director of utilities for Public Works, said his office likes to give 48-hour notices, but that hadn’t been possible with a constantly shifting schedule.
“They’ve had problems with ledge,” he said. “They’ve actually redesigned some things several times with where we could put temporary water lines there to continue to feed customers. It’s just been difficult coordination.”
Gagne wasn’t aware of any day cares in the area. Public Works did work with five other businesses to keep them supplied with running water.
“That’s unfortunate,” Gagne said. “We would have tried to work with them.”
Because of safety and timing issues, it wasn’t possible to do the work at night, he said.
Two people had called to complain, he said.
Gagne anticipated Wednesday was the only water shutdown day related to the project that neighborhood would see. Public Works is building a new bridge crossing Stetson Road.
Water was expected to resume to the area by 7 p.m.
kskelton@sunjournal.com
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