Lakeside Village residents frustrated over another boil water advisory

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - People in Jefferson County’s lakeside village are without water -- again.

KDHE announced a water boil advisory this week. The advisory will stay in effect until the risk of bacterial contamination is resolved.

A trend the residents are tired of going through.

Robert Buck and Alberta Wedge have been in their home for more than 20 years.

“The one maintenance guy we have now, he tries his darnedest to keep things going but there’s only one and he’s out sick right now at a bad time because we just fixed a water leak down here and they just found out there’s another one,” said Buck.

They experienced several months without water during the floods of 2019. The latest advisory Monday was parked when a broken line may have allowed contamination into the system.

“Every year we go through this at least two times a year. We have water pipes bust or it’s down and it just frustrates me that every year it gets worse,” said Wedge.

Buck said he told the neighborhood’s Board President, Jerry White, about a grant opportunity when he was on the board years ago.

“It was going to run us like $5,000 a month for 15 years and that would take care of it to a price tag of about $4 million to do the whole infrastructure of the water lines and things. I give this information and talk to Mr. White about it and he says we’ve got this, we can take care of it,” he said.

But the problems continue, and residents rely on buying water or getting some free bottles from the main office.

“We’ve got three dogs we’ve got to water and this is ridiculous,” said Wedge. “Yesterday they got the water running again and we had dirt and stuff coming through.”

White declined an interview on camera but told me on the phone the situation was no big deal and pointed out the frequent water line breaks in the city of Topeka.

But Robert and Alberta hope change is coming.

“There’s a lot of questions being asked and I don’t know if they’re getting any answers to them. It’s just sad because the place was a beautiful place,” said Buck.

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