Good News Friday: Hallelujah
I’m not sure how a person is supposed to start a #GoodNewsFriday post today. This has been one of the more extraordinary weeks in my memory.
I’ve seen cold weather. I nearly froze to death as a marching band member at the Stamford/Winters football playoff game in 1997. Pro tip: never play a team called the “Winters Blizzards” in frigid temperatures. I have seen lots of snow at all points in the fall, winter, and even spring. But never in my 36 years have I seen it this brutally, dangerously cold for so long. Nor have I ever seen a statewide electrical grid failure that plunged millions of Texans into darkness amidst this dangerously cold weather. But we are not going to talk about that grid failure, because this is a place for good news. We can talk about that mess later.
The picture you see is College Lake. It is a large pond on the edge of Stamford. On Wednesday morning, the surface was frozen over. Shortly after this picture was taken, it became our lifeline. Over 20 years ago, some visionary leaders turned this into a holding pond for an emergency supply of water. On Wednesday, we were unable to access our primary source of water at Lake Stamford, 15 miles away. Our pumps still had no electricity. So City workers turned on the pump here on Wednesday and we began treating College Lake water to serve our citizens.
The existence of College Lake is good news. But you know what else is good news? For the first time in over a week, the temperature is above freezing in Stamford. Hallelujah.
“Good News Friday” is a weekly feature spotlighting positive news and activities in the Stamford community as a part of our quest to build a #BetterStamford.