Technology Support Specialist Joseph Govreau considers himself lucky. 

“(Monday, September 5) was just a routine day. I was at the high school delivering parts for the new Promethean boards.  I had loaded the van with the old equipment I was taking out of a classroom. I was parked on the east side of the building,”Govreau said. 

Govreau then headed back towards the technology office near the football field. 

“I saw Mr. Alvarado walking out of the building about the same time that I was and going to his vehicle. I got into the van and started driving to the tech office like any other day until I heard a loud ‘BOOM’ and the van violently shook. The front tires didn’t seem to be affected because I didn’t feel anything in the steering wheel, but the back tires felt like they had just hit a huge pothole. I looked back in the rearview mirror, looking to see what had just happened. I didn’t see anything from that angle and just kept driving. In my mind, I thought that I had just hit one of the larger potholes that developed on that side of the building,“ he said. 

At the time, Govreau didn’t realize that he just missed a potential disaster. 

As most high school students and staff saw after the incident, a sinkhole developed on the northeast end of the parking lot. Govreau was fortunate that it didn’t sink his vehicle. 

Maintenance Director Dan Calbreath said, “That Monday was when the first hole happened, we came in and we dug down about 12 to 14 feet deep and we filled it.”

Windsor was relieved and intrigued.

The following Saturday, it happened again.. 

Calbreath said, “I came back up and it was leaking again, but it was 8 feet down, so we fixed it again.”

He was hoping that was the end of it, but it wasn’t. Another hole developed. 

“Then, that Monday we came in and it was leaking again. When we dug it up we thought it was the patch that we put on there but it wasn’t, it was further up,” Calbreath said. 

For the time being, the problem seems to be fixed. However, the water district may have to replace old piping that is contributing to the problem. 

“It was just a water main break. There was a water main break in front of the middle school last year,” Calbreath said. “It happens everywhere, pipes break.”