North Campus lost hot water access over Labor Day
September 2, 2014
By Anne Halliwell
Buildings on North Campus did not have hot water from about 3 p.m. Sunday to 8 a.m. Monday while UK’s Physical Plant Division repaired a high-pressure steam line.
The university’s announcement Friday listed the affected buildings, including Blazer and Roselle Halls and the Student Center. Access to cold water and plumbing were not affected.
“For me, it wasn’t that big a deal,” said vocal performance freshman Victoria Sewell, who stayed in Roselle over the weekend. “I didn’t exactly like washing my hands in cold water (but) I just took a shower at like three and woke up early to take another shower for today.”
Sewell added that she hopes the hot water remains on in the future.
The university had been monitoring the steam line’s wear and tear for some time, UK spokesman Jay Blanton wrote in an email to the Kentucky Kernel, and chose the weekend to prevent more damage at a later time.
“We know numbers of students travel over the three-day weekend, so this seemed like the most opportune time … given what we know historically have been travel schedules of students during this time period.” Blanton wrote in the email.
The restaurants in the Student Center and Blazer Café were closed during the outage. South Campus dining hall Commons Market remained open.
The hot water was turned off and back on basically on schedule, Blanton said, and the university apologized for the inconvenience to students.
Blazer resident Rachel Phelps, an equine studies major, said that signs outside the bathrooms warned her dorm enough to work around the announced times with little inconvenience.
Music performance freshman Breanna Odle and music freshman Taylor McLellan of Roselle said they showered early enough that the tanks still had hot water Sunday and then waited until the water was back on Monday.
“They warned us, so it really wasn’t a big deal,” McLellan said.
