First Selectman Kevin Moynihan last week approved an emergency expenditure of $14,290 to replace the controls on a well pump at New Canaan High School that failed after a lightning strike, officials said.
The pump “services the majority of our irrigation systems in and around the Farm Road field—inside the track, things of that nature,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
“It failed,” Mann said Tuesday during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen. “We believe that’s due to a lightning strike.”
The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 to approve the after-the-fact spend with Danbury-based Foley’s Pump Service Inc.
The company had installed the system a couple of years ago, Mann said.
“They came out to evaluate the pump and determined that the well pump is OK but the controls themselves were in complete failure,” Mann said.
The fix was needed on an emergency basis so that the town did not “lose the fields themselves due to high heat and low rain volume” Mann said.
“The storm coming in notwithstanding,” he added.
Funds for the work are available in the DPW “irrigation upgrade account” for this year, Mann said.