Pipes burst in Mayflower; server, carpet damaged

A copper pipe burst earlier this month in the ceiling over the office in the Mayflower Elementary School Library, soaking the carpet, server and routers. No books were damaged, however, Superintendent John Gray said. The library was closed for cleanup, but the carpet has been dried and shampooed, and activities are back to normal. A new server will have to be purchased, Gray said.
A copper pipe burst earlier this month in the ceiling over the office in the Mayflower Elementary School Library, soaking the carpet, server and routers. No books were damaged, however, Superintendent John Gray said. The library was closed for cleanup, but the carpet has been dried and shampooed, and activities are back to normal. A new server will have to be purchased, Gray said.

MAYFLOWER — The frigid temperatures earlier this month caused pipes to burst in the Mayflower School District’s elementary library and baseball facility, Superintendent John Gray said.

The library damage will cost an estimated $3,000 to $4,000 to repair, Gray said, and the baseball-facility damage was minimal.

A copper pipe burst in the ceiling over the library office in a 30-plus-year-old wing, Gray said. The pipe was connected to an outside garden faucet.

“It gave us a mess to clean up,” Gray said.

No books were damaged, however. Gray said the water didn’t get to the level of the books on the shelves, and volunteers took quick action when they discovered the leak the afternoon of Jan. 2.

“The employees on duty and teachers that were here, they moved all the books out and started vacuuming up all the water and pulling out all the technology,” Gray said. “The leak did occur on top where all servers and things were — we were shaking water out of routers. The server was standing in an inch of water. We managed to get it going; we’re going to replace it with another one. Electronics don’t do well with water.”

The library was out of commission for a few days. Fans were set up to dry the carpet, and a company was hired to remove water. District employees shampooed the carpet, and it will be shampooed again, he said.

“It’s looking back to normal now,” Gray said Tuesday.

The estimated cost to the district as a result of the damage includes almost $1,600 to the water-cleanup and restoration service, Servpro, as well as a fee to a plumber and the purchase of a server.

Also, two pipes burst in the ceiling of the baseball/batting practice facility that was built about two years ago, Gray said. “We ended up finding two leaks in that — again, it was copper pipes that froze and split and sprayed water all through the ceiling.”

The pipes broke over the coach’s office and girls locker room.

“[The leaks] ran quite a bit before we found them because school wasn’t quite back yet,” Gray said. “One good thing was, there was a drain in the floor of the girls locker room, which helped get the water out. Because it was a locker room, with block walls and the drain, there’s not a lot of damage we found, yet. We lost ceiling tiles and insulation in the ceiling.”

Gray said he will keep an eye on the weather for the rest of the winter season.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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