Curb stop program underway
Metro District Utilities Supervisor Andrew Romano is coordinating a curb stop program in CPN.
It’s late in the afternoon, you have standing water in your basement and your plumber doesn’t have good news. The source of the leak is between the isolation valve in your house and the shut off at the curb, or “curb stop”. It’s an emergency situation and a staff member of CPNMD must shut it off. That doesn’t sound very complicated until you add six-inches of snow covering a 6” cap that is difficult enough to locate in the best of circumstances.
Beginning in January of this year, Andrew Romano, utilities supervisor for CPNMD, started the Curb Stop Program to enhance the service provided to customers of CPNMD. The locations of curb stops have traditionally been indicated with a blue paint mark on the curbing in front of a house.
There are 3,180 single-family houses in the service area of CPNMD. As project manager, Andrew’s goal is to have half of the curb stops located this year; the remainder by the end of next year. Businesses and multi-family units in the District will also be included in the program. The program has begun in the north area of the community and will continue south until completed.
Going house-to-house, and starting at the blue “W” painted on the curb, Andrew locates the curb stop and uses a GPS device to mark the latitude and longitude of the cap. He also opens the cap to make sure that the valve handle can be reached and turned with a special tool. In the case of the emergency, such as described above, when utility staff arrive at a house, the GPS device will pinpoint the exact location of the curb stop. Instead of taking hours in our snowy example above, locating the curb stop will take minutes.
A curb stop is an often forgotten item in the yard. Andrew has run into situations where he has found them covered by flowerpots, trees, bushes, sod, and other permanent landscaping materials. It is important that the valve cap remain exposed for easy access in case of an emergency. Andrew will contact homeowners in cases where the curb stop is not easily accessible.
Please contact Andrew at 303-688-8550 with any questions.
