Kudos to Bob McGrory and the town of Centreville for having the foresight to hire him!
Recently, during the latest "Storm of the Century", we had a water main break on our side of town. What a disaster this was for us...you never realize how dependent you really are on running water until you have none. To say we were frustrated is the "Understatement of the Century"! No baths, no flushing no toothbrushing, NOTHING unless you went out and bought water from the grocery store.
Initial phone calls to Town Hall yielded little more information than was patently obvious--we had no water, a water main broke and no, we don't know how long it will take to fix it. Eventually, the rumor mill started and I immediately got on the phone with our Town Manager Bob McGrory to find out if there was any validity to the rumors (there wasn't). Bob then posted many updates to both our neighborhood list serve and to the town's website as soon as he had them. He got the main fixed in less than 14 hours, which, as a friend pointed out, is phenomenal considering that in Baltimore, a city that deals with Main Breaks all the time, it's 2-3 DAYS until they get fixed!
We are now on a Boil Water Alert which means that any water you drink or cook with has to be at a rolling boil for one full minute before you drink/eat with it. Definitely a huge inconvience for all of us, but compared to what they are dealing with across the bridge, I am pretty okay with it. I can't begin to imagine being without electricity in this weather for FOUR days! I should note, my kids are loving the Alert because they are getting more soda and iced tea than usual because I couldn't possibly boil or buy enough water to keep them satiated.
I have lived in several cities in my life. I have had no electricity, no water and various other issues to deal with. I have NEVER had the kind of help from the city that Bob McGrory provided to us with his emails and phone calls all designed to keep the rumor mill at bay and us accurately informed. I was accused of defending the town at one point but now that its over, there's nothing to defend. Bob acted admirably in a situation that NOONE could control.
Oh yes, before I forget, I did a little research as to WHY this might have happened. I have a friend who is in the business (underground piping and such) and my first question to him was "How is it that pipes that are less than ten years old break so soon? God knows that we have had colder weather...what is the deal?!" According to him, the breaking pipe could be because of any number of factors many of which are not the TOWNS fault. I will not attempt to list all the reasons he told me here, because I frankly don't remember them all but the one that seemed simplest to me is the weather. It seems that the cold *could* have preyed on a weak area of the pipe and it chose the other day to burst. It could have been ALOT of things. The bottom line? It happened, the Town dealt with it swiftly and effectively AND we were informed every step of the way. Other than the pipe not breaking in the first place, I am not sure what more we could ask for.
I sure am not going to complain about boiling the water for a few days...its SOP in cases like this and nothing Bob or the Council could do would change that Hell, I remember a time when we were all grixin' because we WEREN'T notified of the Boil Water Alerts.... Look at us now!
And for those of you who still think the town is taking too long or whatever, let me remind you that one of our Town Councilmen live in an area that was/is affected by the breakage. So, I feel certain that the town is well motivated to fix the problem. I do not, however, believe that Bob McGrory would have behaved any differently had it been in any other area. He has always been, in my dealings with him, an honorable man who strives to do his job the best way he can.
Just please, take the lemons and make some lemonade instead of complaining about something that can't be helped!
And would somebody else, please tell Bob we appreciate all of his efforts on our behalf? If you don't have his address you can go to www.townofcentreville.org and email him from the site or you can email me directly at andimorony@gmail.com and I can give it to you.
UPDATE:
I have just been informed that the BOIL WATER ALERT has been rescinded. THANK GOD!
EJ Pipkin has introduced leglislation in Annapolis that is meant to cut the red tape to get Queen Annes County an Emergency Room. WOOO HOOO! I can't begin to tell those of you who live outside the county how interminable the ride is to our closest ER with a sick or injured child. 
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