NewsLeak

While many homes in New Jersey are dealing with frozen pipes, a skating rink in West Windsor is dealing with a lack of freezing at its skating rink. The Times of Trenton reports a water leak and pump failure are to blame.

Julie Willmot, the director of communications for Mercer County, told the news source a pipe at the rink was leaking coolant, which keeps the ice frozen, and that the pump shut down automatically once the leak was detected. Despite freezing conditions for the outside rink, they aren't enough to keep the rink frozen.

The leak has mainly affected local high school hockey teams, which use the rink for practices and games. "Ice time is at a premium so it is an inconvenience," Willmot told the paper. "We're hoping at the end of the season we can tack on extra games if there are any that still need to be rescheduled."

In Las Vegas, an acid leak caused problems at a skating rink, KTVN-TV reports. Officials told the station corrosive hydrochloric acid is used to create the ice for the rink.

A vacant Minneapolis home flooded, forming ice throughout the home and resulting in a problem for neighbors and the city, the Star-Tribune reports.

City officials told the newspaper the incident could have been prevented, but a city ordinance which requires homeowners to maintain their water pressure valves, as well as a misunderstanding about the vacancy of the home, prevented officials from doing anything to fix the leak.

"From where I am standing, I do not understand why this happened," Chris Morris, director of the McKinley Community association, told the paper. "The city dropped the ball."

According to the paper, the home had been abandoned for a few months after the property's owner left the residence due to financial issues. City workers reportedly attempted to shut off the home's water in December, before the leak occurred, but the stop box was broken and city contractors took too long to fix it.

The paper states a city inspector wants to renovate the home instead of demolish it, determining the floor boards and walls weren't severely damaged from the water leak.

The city of Minneapolis' website states water rates for the city this year is $3.20 per unit, with a water tax of 7.75 percent.

The state-funded Community Development Block Program will supply Dodge County, Wisconsin, with $548,000 to repair sanitary issues involving plumbing fixtures in low-income and moderate housing, reports the Fond du Lac Reporter.

As part of the grant, the source says homeowners, landlords and contractors can apply for the money to use for property repairs, and home inspectors will evaluate whether the funds were used properly.

Dean Perlick, manager of planning and economic development in the county, told the paper the funds will be used for household repairs such as replacing windows and doors, fixing old or broken furnaces, upgrading plumbing or electrical systems, repairing or replacing roofs or fixing water and sewer lines which leak.

Perlick also told the source, "The people who administer the grant monies in other places said they've never seen such a demand for the loans as they've seen in Dodge County."

While 18 communities in Georgia received $8.8 million in grant funds for various uses, such as Dodge County's water infrastructure, New York received more than $67 million in clean water infrastructure grants last summer.

A cracked pipe at Cheshire County Jail in Keene, New Hampshire, caused the facility's computer systems to go down temporarily when water leaked on them, reports the Keene Sentinel.

The jail's computers were reportedly affected for two hours, and authorities there utilized backup security measures in the control room. According to the paper, when the computer system failed, all doors in the building opened up.

County administrator John G. Wozmak told the news source the plumbing leak began when a pipe on the roof attached to the building's geothermal heating system froze. Officials are reportedly trying to determine if system malfunction caused it to freeze.

About 10 percent of the affected computer equipment will have to be repaired or replaced due to the water damage, Wozmak told the paper.

Town officials in Paul Smiths, New York, are deciding what to do with a vacant dilapidated prison in the town, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports. The prison is reportedly in need of several repairs – notably, the water and sewer system for the building needs to be overhauled. The paper states the town may choose to demolish the buildings to sell the property as quickly as possible.