Crew hit with the elements, below and above ground

So much for an uninterrupted holiday weekend for the Libby city street crew.

The Sheriff's Office reported a water main break Saturday from a pipe below the intersection at 10th Street and Montana Avenue.

City workers on Sunday shut and cleared valves around the intersection. By Monday, they were shin-deep in gushing water, shoveling, digging and pumping water and rock from the pit in 29-degree weather.

The main break shut down water service to Burger Express for a few hours.

Meanwhile, as half the crew responded to the gushing leak, the other half was prepping street plows for the Monday night snowfall, according to City Maintenance Supervisor Corky Pape.

Plows began running downtown around 2 a.m. At 4 a.m., for round two, the plows worked their way toward residential areas.

Then, again on Wednesday morning, crews responded to the city's weak water infrastructure as a leak bubbled up on Main Avenue between Third and Fourth streets.

Crews tore into the street, digging down into a frozen muddy pit that was slowly filling with water.