Cityscape

Update: Detroit Cafe Customers Drink Water From Hydrant, And City Hooked It Up

October 02, 2014, 6:41 AM

Update, 10:16 a.m.: The city of Detroit released this statement regarding the Wurlitzer Building, whose condition is preventing repairs to water pipes to nearby businesses.

The city filed a nuisance abatement lawsuit against Paul Curtis, the owner of the Wurlitzer Building in Wayne Circuit Court because falling bricks from the structure are a danger to the life and safety of the public.  The court granted the city’s motion and ordered Mr. Curtis to remediate the building. A water main that supplies water to properties surrounding the Wurlitzer must be repaired.

As a result, 2 weeks ago the city petitioned the court for immediate relief.  The court again granted the motion and has required the owner to place $100,000 in an escrow account to strip the loose brick from the building to make it safe for workers to repair the water main break. The money has been placed in the account, and the firm Grunwell Cashero is currently performing the remediation work and is expected to be finished in approximately 2 weeks.

Once the remediation work is completed and the site is safe, the Department of Water & Sewerage will make the necessary water main repairs and restore proper service to the businesses on Broadway.

Butch Hollowell, Corporation Counsel

Earlier: A downtown Detroit coffeehouse and an adjoining jewelry store get all their water from a system of plastic pipe and garden hoses attached to a nearby fireplug, Robert Allen writes in the Free Press.

The hook-up is not the work of the business owners trying to get free water. It's the work of the city's Water and Sewerage Department.

The makeshift water service is the only way that Chris Jaszczak, 66, owner of 1515 Broadway, is able to serve coffee to his customers. All water served is boiled first, and customers aren't offered tap water.

It's just one more example of a city immersed in bankruptcy making do with imaginative fixes, like using tires to plug utility manholes whose covers have been stolen. Or firefighters using pop cans hooked up to fax machines as emergency alerts.

The fireplug is a temporary fix while the  water department  figures out how to make repairs without damaging two nearby tall buildings that are falling apart.


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


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