Broken sprinkler cause for City Hall flood

City Administrator, Jennifer Stapleton, told city officials at Wednesday’s council meeting that the cause for the burst pipe on Feb. 22 was caused by a failed sprinkler head, not a frozen pipe as was rumored around town. With photos of the damage, she explained the circumstances of what she said her staff was calling “Floodgate 2022.”

She said that she and the city planner were working late that evening when suddenly it sounded like there were three fire hoses shooting at the downstairs windows.

“Water was spraying everywhere. To give you an idea of how spectacular it was here at City Hall, the amount of water that we had coming in was at a rate of 4,000 gallons a minute,” Stapleton said.

She explained that the culprit head was on the northeast corner of the second floor. “It was spraying up and coming out of the attic area of the building down over the side and hitting with such force that it was coming up and splashing the windows on the first floor.”

It didn’t take long for substantial flooding on the second floor and for saturated ceiling tiles to start falling. One of the photos showed a stack of payroll record boxes threatened by the pouring water, but Stapleton said that staff was able to quickly move the boxes so that no records were lost.

“It was a great demonstration of the ability of our team, across the city, to have an adversity come in and to face the challenge like it’s just another day. And, we weathered on,” she said.

Despite sending out an announcement that City Hall would be closed to the public the next day, people needing to pay their utility bills, apparently not seeing the report, still came in. She said staff nonplussed, carried on utilizing laptops and finding dry space where possible in order to continue their work.

Stapleton acknowledged the quick response from North Idaho Flood and Fire. Blowers and de-humidifiers were employed and within 24 hours the adjuster responded. Within 48 hours ceiling tiles were replaced.

“We have some drywall patching that needs to happen and we have some base molding that needs to happen downstairs, but downstairs is basically back to what it was when we finished the remodel. Upstairs we will be waiting for all the final reports from the adjuster,” she said.

Mayor Shelby Rognstad said that the damage could have been much worse if Stapleton and her crew weren’t working late. He said that he had come into City Hall the next day to assess the situation.

“Everybody was working creatively wherever they could. Everyone had an upbeat attitude, they were unfazed. I appreciate everybody’s hard work and ability to adapt. My hats off to you,” he said.