Local businesses aid Dakota City with water
Pictured from left to right: local Hy-Vee employees Roger Townsend, Jim Anderson, Tim Schipull, Connor Fiddler, Haylie Roberts and Kennedi Cran unloaded water and distributed it to local residents after Dakota City was hit with a boil order due to a chlorine pump failure at the water plant on Friday, June 17. The city was back in compliance by Tuesday and the boil order was lifted. See other photos from the effort in this week's Humboldt Independent and online at www.humboldtnews.com. Independent photo.
By Kent Thompson
The city of Dakota City received a big assist from the local grocery stores when a boil order was issued last Friday morning, June 17. Fareway delivered eight pallets of water and Hy-Vee came through with a whole semi load, 18 pallets of water, a total of 36,288 bottles.
The relief effort was part of Hy-Vee’s Disaster Relief Recovery services.
“We called them at noon on Friday and they sent out a driver who was off duty up here with a semi to provide water,” Hy-Vee District Store Director Roger Townsend said.
“They go all over,” he said. Last December when devastating tornadoes hit Tennessee and Kentucky, Hy-Vee sent a team of 37 employees and a caravan of 19 vehicles with 327,000 bottles of water and more than 220,000 snack bars and breakfast items to help victims and volunteers.
“There was a water main break in Grinnell last week and the company sent water there and today they are here,” Townsend said shortly after 4 p.m. when the semi arrived in Dakota City.
Dakota City Water Superintendent Don Smith made quick work of the unloading, using the city’s Bobcat skid loader to remove pallets from the truck.
