The telephone lines at Belleville City Hall lit up with complaints on Monday afternoon, after the DPW cut off all water service to the whole city (except Victoria Commons) as part of the Main Street water line project.

   This, added to talk that the Main Street water project will be done a month later than announced, added to feelings of frustration in Belleville.

   City Manager Diana Kollmeyer said people were very upset on Monday. She said crews from Bricco, the contractor, were installing cross connections at High and Fifth streets and the DPW kept turning the valve on the aging infrastructure and the water wouldn't shut off.

   The decision was made to cut off service to the whole city to complete the hookup, but no businesses or residents were informed ahead of time. They just turned the tap and there was no water, so they called or rushed over to city hall.

   Kollmeyer assured the City Council at Monday's meeting that she has demanded 48 hours notice before interruption of water service, as the contractor had agreed to in the public sessions.

   "This will not happen again," she vowed, noting Mike Foley from Frosty Boy and Dr. Moynahan, the dentist, were especially upset.

   She estimated the service was off citywide for about one hour and 15 minutes, and at 10 minutes to 5 p.m. the water was back on.

   "We didn't anticipate the whole city being without water," she said.

   On Monday, Main Street was closed from Denton Road to Third Street for water connections across the street. The laundromat and Red Beans and Rice restaurant were informed last Friday that their water service would be interrupted on Monday, so they did not open.

   The thousands of vehicles that use Main Street daily were detoured to North Liberty Street, with traffic through the city down to a crawl during the busy commute times. One woman reported it taking a half hour just to get through Five Points.

   In another turn of events, the Oct. 21 completion date for the project, announced at a pre-project informational meeting for businesses, has now been changed to Nov. 15.

   At the informational meeting, Bricco officials said there was a lot of extra time built into the schedule, so it probably would be done before Oct. 21.

   But last Thursday, Mike Windiate, president of Main Street Merchants Association, said he was told by Bricco employees and DPW Director Keith Boc that the project won't be completed until the middle of November.

   When Windiate questioned Downtown Development Authority coordinator Carol Thompson by email, she emailed him back that the contract document calls for "substantial completion" by Nov. 1 and final completion by Nov. 15.

   The businesses who met at the Spicer Engineers office on Main Street to hear about the schedule were not told that the contract document was different than what was announced.

   The sudden change in the completion date has stirred up the mistrust that the businesses had for the DDA, which had led to the DDA vowing to keep communication lines open.

   One businessperson emailed others in the Main Street Merchants Association: "This is a small community. We are not that far removed from our government. Those who serve are our friends and neighbors. Full disclosure should not be that difficult. We should not have surprises. Shouldn't all the contracts with all the contingencies have been revealed up front?

   "The situation reminds me of the TV ad in which one child is given a real horse and the other a paper horse. Did the merchants just get the paper horse? After all, we did get a horse. What are we complaining about. Right?"

   To keep up with progress on Main Street: www.bellevillestreetscape.com .