MECHANIC FALLS – A few days before retiring, Water Department Superintendent Paul Hackett reflected on 32 years spent keeping the water running for people in Mechanic Falls and part of Poland.

“One of the roughest times was my very first winter when the water main broke under the river behind the old fire station. For a week, we had fire hoses running across the river to supply the Minot side of town,” Hackett recalled.

Hackett gives thanks that nothing since has matched that week in February 1975 when he pretty much lived out on the Little Androscoggin River in a 6- by 8-foot fish house with nights below zero and daytime temperatures that got to little more than 10 degrees.

“We got a crane from Callahan Bros. to dig it out. The diver, a guy named Stevens out of Skowhegan, had to cut out a 5-foot section of pipe and replace it. It was slow work but, at least we didn’t have to put up with snow,” Hackett said.

“The cold, however, almost had its way. By the end of the week, one of the two fire hoses froze solid and passage through the second was down to the size of a silver dollar.”

“We managed to keep the flow going. There were no restrictions on water use and there were no fires,” Hackett said.

Hackett has worked closely with the Fire Department, and was chief from 1977 to 1982.

“Whenever the fire department is using a hydrant, we come in and make sure the pump is running. Don’t want them to run it dry,” Hackett said.

For 32 years, Hackett has measured success by one constant – the delivery of safe, potable water and water sufficient to douse fires.

And that’s about all that has remained constant.

When Hackett began in 1974, it was with the Mechanic Falls Water Company, a private company owned by General Waterworks of Bryn Mawr, Pa.

Water was drawn directly from Waterhouse Brook and delivered through cast-iron pipes that had been laid through downtown Mechanic Falls in 1895.

“The town bought the water company in 1995. The PUC made it hard on them so General Waterworks was selling off its Maine water companies all over,” Hackett said.

In 1989, the then town-water company laid more than three miles of 12-inch pipe from Highland Avenue to Winterbrook Road where it put in a drilled well.

“Poland Spring Water Co. has a well right nearby; I’d say we’re using about the same water,” Hackett said.

He noted that residential customers receive a minimum quarterly bill of $36 for 6,700 gallons of some of the finest water in the world for about a half a penny a gallon.

“Couples usually don’t go over minimum but, with a couple of kids, they likely do, and it makes a difference if the family has boys or girls. A family with two girls uses more than a family with two boys. Boys don’t like water and girls wash their hair a lot, I guess,” Hackett said.

With storage tanks on Standpipe Hill and as of this fall, on Pigeon Hill, the number of customers has risen from about 400 in 1974 to more than 720 today.

“By law, we serve the area of Mechanic Falls and most of Poland. We have only one big customer in Poland, the new high school. You never know what the future holds. I imagine one day we’ll tie in with Auburn, probably in the Hackett’s Mill area and, who knows, maybe a tie to Oxford and Norway/South Paris and beyond,” mused Hackett.

Hackett’s own plans for the future are a little more clear. After hunting season, mostly in the Upton area, there will be a trip South and then back for some fishing in the spring.

“Next spring, I’ll be back up to Wilson’s Mill, Lake Aziscohos. Good fishing; it’s not often I come back skunked. After that, I’ll think about what’s next,” Hackett said.

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