NIPSCO Response
November 14, 2016 at 7:56 p.m.
By -
Everyone kept smelling natural gas off and on on Court Circle in Winona Lake. Finally, NIPSCO was called and on Oct. 10, marked there was a gas leak underground and said they would be back in about a week to fix it. They said not to worry. It was not dangerous. However, as you look at the news and see where houses have blown up, you can’t help but wonder.
Various markings were made but no one came back to work on it for 17 days so I called NIPSCO. They couldn’t find a record of it right then so they had to treat it like an emergency and said they would send someone out. They came out late, started digging a deep hole in the street till 10 p.m. and couldn’t find the leak so filled it up and said they would be back. No one came back.
The smell was worse as the holes they poked, etc. exposed more ways for the gas to come out. I called again in a few days and they couldn’t find a record of it and said they had to treat it as an emergency again and came out again and said they would be back the next day. They weren’t.
I called the billing department so they wouldn’t treat it as an emergency, just to try to find out what was going on, but the minute I said gas leak, they called it an emergency and said all the same rote things like, “Don’t turn anything on, get out of the house, and we will send someone out.” This time, they stayed and dug a new hole in the street down 3 or 4 feet to probably 60-year-old pipes and tightened a compression something that had come loose and finally fixed it. They filled the hole, and left it with the other hole, so we had two wide holes in Court Circle about 4 to 5 inches deep and a couple feet wide.
I asked whose responsibility these holes were to fix. NIPSCO said it was theirs and they would come back and put rocks in them but not really fix them till spring. They left, leaving no orange cones and a dangerous situation. I knew we would never see NIPSCO again because I assure you they are not easy to call and they don’t seem to remember from one service call to the next!
Now the happy news. My husband, Jerry, called and left a message on the phone for Tom Miller of the Winona Lake Street Department about the street situation. Within an hour, a truck was out here to Court Circle taking care of those two holes so they are safe for walkers and drivers. They even said they would come back in the spring and redo the road even more – and I can believe them! Now that is what I call responding to the needs of citizens.
This care by our street department reminded me of something I would like to share I heard in the last town council meeting. At a national conference Tom Miller attended, the Winona Lake Street Department received a Platinum Safety Award for over 10 years (actually has been 11-1/2 years) without a lost time accident. I think I got that right. Anyway, it is an award not many street departments get. Way to go, guys. Thanks for making up for the response of NIPSCO.
Jan Nelson
Winona Lake
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Everyone kept smelling natural gas off and on on Court Circle in Winona Lake. Finally, NIPSCO was called and on Oct. 10, marked there was a gas leak underground and said they would be back in about a week to fix it. They said not to worry. It was not dangerous. However, as you look at the news and see where houses have blown up, you can’t help but wonder.
Various markings were made but no one came back to work on it for 17 days so I called NIPSCO. They couldn’t find a record of it right then so they had to treat it like an emergency and said they would send someone out. They came out late, started digging a deep hole in the street till 10 p.m. and couldn’t find the leak so filled it up and said they would be back. No one came back.
The smell was worse as the holes they poked, etc. exposed more ways for the gas to come out. I called again in a few days and they couldn’t find a record of it and said they had to treat it as an emergency again and came out again and said they would be back the next day. They weren’t.
I called the billing department so they wouldn’t treat it as an emergency, just to try to find out what was going on, but the minute I said gas leak, they called it an emergency and said all the same rote things like, “Don’t turn anything on, get out of the house, and we will send someone out.” This time, they stayed and dug a new hole in the street down 3 or 4 feet to probably 60-year-old pipes and tightened a compression something that had come loose and finally fixed it. They filled the hole, and left it with the other hole, so we had two wide holes in Court Circle about 4 to 5 inches deep and a couple feet wide.
I asked whose responsibility these holes were to fix. NIPSCO said it was theirs and they would come back and put rocks in them but not really fix them till spring. They left, leaving no orange cones and a dangerous situation. I knew we would never see NIPSCO again because I assure you they are not easy to call and they don’t seem to remember from one service call to the next!
Now the happy news. My husband, Jerry, called and left a message on the phone for Tom Miller of the Winona Lake Street Department about the street situation. Within an hour, a truck was out here to Court Circle taking care of those two holes so they are safe for walkers and drivers. They even said they would come back in the spring and redo the road even more – and I can believe them! Now that is what I call responding to the needs of citizens.
This care by our street department reminded me of something I would like to share I heard in the last town council meeting. At a national conference Tom Miller attended, the Winona Lake Street Department received a Platinum Safety Award for over 10 years (actually has been 11-1/2 years) without a lost time accident. I think I got that right. Anyway, it is an award not many street departments get. Way to go, guys. Thanks for making up for the response of NIPSCO.
Jan Nelson
Winona Lake
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