Medical offices are working again

By AMBER DILLEY
Glasgow Daily Times

CAVE CITY February 05, 2009 12:35 pm

— Medical offices in parts of three counties had been forced to shut down because of power and water issues have reopened.
Offices in the northern part of Barren and in Hart and Metcalfe counties were closed last week because of the lack of power to their water systems.
Offices that were operating under the Cave City Water Utility and the Green River Valley Water District had to shut down due to a boil water advisory and stress on a limited clean water supply.
David Peterson, general manager of Caveland Environmental Authority, said all the medical offices involved were notified of the advisory.
All offices, except those operating under the Edmonson County Water District, have reopened.
“I think it was Wednesday morning when I received a call from David Peterson advising me it was unsafe to use the water in Cave City,” said Chris Steward, DMD, of Cave City.
“It was Friday morning that it was OK to use the water. I understood that on my side of the street, the water may be coming from Glasgow, but I didn’t want to take that chance and be liable for getting someone sick.”
The dentist had a few patients call in needing assistance, but Steward said all he could do was write them prescriptions for pain medication until he could open the office back up.
The office of Dr. Sheldon Ballou, also in Cave City, was open in limited capacity.
The office has a new addition that runs from a self-contained water system that uses distilled water, according to Faith Ballou, with Ballou Family Dentistry.
Dr. R.T. Williams’ office in Cave City had to refer some patients to T.J. Samson Community Hospital or if it cold be postponed, were rescheduled for Friday, a day the office isn’t normally open.
“Most of our employees are from Hart County, in the Cub Run and Munfordville area and they were snowed in,” said Rhonda Williams, office manager. “They had no electricity. I think eight in the office had no power or water. We did have a few staff members here to answer the phones, the ones who could make it here, and helped a lot.”
T.J. Samson Community Hospital had no problems with power or water during the recent storm, according to Bart Logsdon, marketing liaison.