Owensville aldermen on Dec. 19 approved an emergency spending allocation of $11,919 to replace a burned out well pump at Memorial Park.

Jeff Fahrenholtz, the city’s public works director, told the Board of Aldermen the 5-year-old well pump serving the No. 3 well and water tower had apparently “shorted to ground” over a weekend earlier this month.

“It’s in the pump,” Fahrenholtz said. “It shorted itself (out).”

He said quotes for replacing the pump from three vendors were $11,919. $15,878, and $18,505. The low price, from Flynn, was accepted. And, better yet, the pump was in stock, he noted.

Fahrenholtz said he was looking into possible causes for the problem which destroyed the pump.

It was only five years ago the city had the pump replaced and electrical service for the well house upgraded.

Portions of the city experienced two recent outages of electric service as a contractor for Ameren Missouri has been making improvements to the high-power service line which bisects the city.

The pump was replaced this past week and Fahrenholtz said Friday that water samples were taken at the site  and were sent to the state’s testing facility for analysis. He said Tuesday he received verbal confirmation the samples were good and expected to resume well pumping operations on receipt of the report.