Broken pipe at Lewiston Center Mall doesn’t result in much of a headache
Leak caused waterto cascade from center’s overhang
A pipe that broke in a sprinkler system at the Lewiston Center Mall at about 8 p.m. Thursday evening is being repaired.
The leak happened in an overhang on the exterior of the mall near the east entrance to the enclosed section of the shopping center. In a video posted Thursday evening on the LCV Neighborhood Watch Facebook page, water is seen pouring from the overhang.
On Friday morning, yellow caution tape cordoned off a small section of sidewalk. Overhead, it appeared a tile had been removed from the ceiling.
The problem didn’t create any ongoing disruption for mall businesses and it won’t delay the renovation of the former JCPenney space for Hobby Lobby, said Billy Jeffrey Scharnhorst, the mall’s manager.
A sign in the mall says that Hobby Lobby is coming this spring.
“It got cold,” Scharnhorst said in a text message to the Tribune. “Water freezes. One pipe broke. We shut off the water. It’s being fixed.”
A Lewiston fire crew responded and turned off the water, said Lewiston Fire Chief Greg Rightmier.
They were summoned by an alarm triggered when the pipe failed, Rightmier said.
This type of issue is relatively common in this area, he said, noting there has been at least one annually for three years.
Pipes sometimes freeze when the temperature drops and then break when it gets warmer, even if it doesn’t get above freezing, Rightmier said.
