Wells’ lift station by the south industrial park has recently been vandalized.

The vandalization is so bad that the city will have to put up $3,000 for repairs. The City Council approved the repairs in their last meeting after hearing of the incident from both the chief of police, Tim Brenegan, and city foreman Mike Pyzick.

According to the two officials, two juvenile vandals, who were caught on camera, removed several bolts from the lid of the lift station, and pried the cover off of the industrial pump.

“We are very fortunate we do not have two missing children,” said Brenegan. “And we are also fortunate they didn’t throw anything down the 50-foot pit.”

“I can’t believe these kids would do that. Is Wells footing the bill for this?” questioned Crystal Dulas, of the Wells City Council. “Is there really nothing better to do in Wells than to pry off the lid of a lift station?”

“Well, we have discussed bringing a new form of security to them,” said city administrator CJ Holl. “Bevcomm has a set of dialers we can look into.”

Currently, the city of Wells only has a red indication light on the lift stations if anything is tampered with.

“Trouble with that is if it gets covered in the snow, or the bulb burns out, we don’t know if there’s really an issue unless we do an actual visual inspection,” Pyzick said to the council. “And if the problem isn’t detected, we could be talking sewage backup, or backup into streets or homes.”

“This is so dangerous of an incident, I think we would almost have to get the new dialers,” said Whitney Harig of the Wells City Council.

The dialers, provided by Bevcomm, would make a cell phone call or message to staff if there is any tampering or equipment failure at any one of the lift stations in the city of Wells.

The council passed a motion to purchase the dialers from Bevcomm. As for damages regarding the vandalism of the covers, the Wells Police Department is investigating and pursuing restitution for the damages.

No further information regarding the two individuals was shared.