City well running after several shut-downs

One of Sisters’ two municipal wells gave the City of Sisters Public Works Department fits earlier this month.

The well off Three Creek Road repeatedly shut down. When Public Works Director Gary Frazee got electricians out to fix the pump’s electronics, it would run for 10 or 11 hours and then quit.

There was never any danger of a water shortage in the City of Sisters, according to Frazee. The reservoir was filled as it is supposed to be and the city’s other well, located near Sisters High School, continued to function properly.

However, the situation did leave the city vulnerable if something had gone wrong with the other well.

According to Frazee, the electricians finally solved the problem — sort of — by simply bypassing a circuit breaker that continued to trip. That also meant bypassing the “soft-start” mechanism that revs up the pump slowly to reduce strain.

“Now when you hit the switch it’s going full-power,” Frazee said.

Frazee said he didn’t expect any undue wear-and-tear from the bypass.

“In the old days, that’s how they started up,” he said.

In any case, it’s a short term solution and Frazee is planning to permanently fix the problem in a few months.

“After the busy season we’ll go in there and clean up the whole electrical panel,” he said.