Res. Living shuts off water in high rises

It may have been pouring outside, but the faucets in High Rise North ran dry yesterday morning. According to Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone, the water was turned off from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. so workers could "do some general plumbing repairs." Director of Residential Maintenance Lynn Horner said the repairs were not part of a routine shut down. There was a leak in the hot water generator that provides hot water for the entire building, she said. Horner added that the leak was caused by a hole in one of the supply lines. Workers solved the problem by replacing that piece of pipe. Horner said the repairs could not be delayed. "We might have let it go [one more day], but we didn't want to put it off," she said. If the problem was not addressed in time, there eventually would have been a problem supplying enough hot water for the building, she added. Her department knew about the leak last week, she said. In fact, repairs were originally scheduled to take place last Wednesday. "But we decided we shouldn't do it the last day because we figured people would be getting ready to leave and need the water," she said. Horner added that her department decided not to fix it over break because of the lack of available help over the holidays. "We didn't want to schedule repairs over the break because we might have needed backup from a contractor and we didn't know if we could get one then," she said. Although signs were posted throughout the dormitory, many residents were uninformed of this shut-down. Simeone said the lack of student knowledge was probably due to removal of the posters. "It seems that a number [of signs] were ripped down, presumably by students," she said. Several High Rise North residents said they were unhappy about the sudden shut down. College sophomore Helen Cristofalo complained that this was not an isolated occurrence. "They shut the water down once every two weeks here, or the hot water is off," she said. Cristofalo added that it was inconsiderate of Physical Plant to shut the water down for so long. "I don't understand how they expect people to not go to the bathroom from 10 to 3," she said. Wharton and Engineering sophomore Matt Finkelstein said he also suffered from the lack of water. "I smelled all day because I couldn't take a shower this morning," he said.