ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 27, 1996 TAG: 9612270043
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Michael Armstead and Daniel Palmer didn't spend Christmas sniffing the aroma of freshly cut pine and roasting turkey - they spent the day surrounded by sewage.
The two Henrico County Department of Public Utilities workers were running a pump to keep a neighborhood clean after a sewer main collapsed.
County officials said repairs on 120 feet of the 8-inch pipe, which collapsed Dec. 18, were to begin Thursday.
The neighborhood was saved by about 150 feet of green plastic pipe. It snaked across a yard and around the back of a house, shunting the neighborhood's sewage from the broken sewer to another main line running behind the neighborhood.
Both Armstead and Palmer left families at home opening gifts without them on Christmas morning.
Despite what seemed to be an endless, boring and somewhat distasteful task, the two were in great spirits, laughing easily and joking about what could go wrong if it rained heavily or got cold enough to freeze the flow in the pipe.
Why did they leave home on Christmas to pump raw sewage?
Besides the overtime pay they will earn, the two said they had more benevolent motivations to pull shifts over the holiday.
Both said most co-workers had younger children at home.
``We all work together and most of the other guys' kids are younger,'' Palmer said.
Several residents of the small neighborhood of split levels and ranch homes said they would have been up in trouble if the county had not sent the volunteer pumping crews.
``I'd rather put up with the noise [of the pump] than the sewage backing up,'' said Steve Perdue.
Armstead said the residents had been great to workers. One woman took coffee and pound cake to some of the crewmen last week. All the residents have been friendly and thankful, the two workers said.
``The people in this neighborhood have been wonderful,'' Armstead said. ``It's like a blessing. It's a blessing that I'm here to help them and it's a blessing that they appreciate us being here.''
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB