By By MaryClaire Foster
Residents and businesses on the southeast side of town lost gas shortly before noon on Monday when a mistake was made during general maintenance procedures.
Atmore Utilities Manager Tom Wolfe said his employees were switching lines at McRae Street and 4th Avenue when they realized after cutting off the line in use that the one to be reconnected did not have gas going to it.
The utilities board has been working for the past several weeks on maintenance of gas lines, and Wolfe said this was one of the last they were going to work on.
Wolfe originally said he was concerned about getting the lines reconnected before the cold weather hit Monday evening.
Wolfe said the problem was corrected by 8 p.m. Monday and he was apologetic that the problem could not be fixed sooner.
Numerous restaurants’ business was affected by the loss of gas.
Jalisco’s Mexican Restaurant and Monterrey’s Mexican Restaurant were two of them and were both only able to serve a limited menu at lunch.
Yan Chen, an employee at Chen’s Chinese Buffett, said they had to close completely for lunch and it was upsetting to lose the business. She said they too had their gas cut back on around 3 p.m.