WILLIAMSTOWN — Williamstown City Council discussed the aftermath of a city water outage and how to proceed following an ongoing repair bill for a city police cruiser at Tuesday’s meeting.

During Sunday and Monday, the Williamstown Water Department crews repaired a fire hydrant on Highland Avenue, which houses the main waterline. The repair was prompted by a motorist colliding with the hydrant and causing a leaky valve.

Mayor Paul Jordan said he commended the water department crew’s effort to complete the repair in a timely fashion.

“They planned and pre-planned and practiced. They tried very hard,” he said.

Jordan also thanked the workers in the Water Department office who called the city’s 92 individual businesses to advise of the outage.

Council Member Jim Stage said despite the city’s efforts to publicize the outage, they still received calls.

“We still had about 20 calls yesterday morning, early,” he said.

In another item on the agenda, Jordan said the city had one of their police cruisers in an area repair shop for over two years. They had initially sent the vehicle there for an engine repair.

“They’ve worked on it, done some stuff to it. … The roundabout story is they’ve put time and labor and parts and different things in, but to no avail. They haven’t fixed the product,” he said.

City Attorney Blaire Hudson said she reviewed related invoices and spoke to Police Chief Shawn Graham. Graham told her they got an estimate of $6,500 for an engine repair.

Hudson said her suggestion is to send a certified letter to the garage to request removal of installed parts from the vehicle and allow the city to tow it back to Williamstown.

“We’ll take the cruiser. It’s going to be in worse condition than it was two years ago, since as I mentioned, it’s been sitting out, not running. We’re not going to make a claim for the depreciation and you don’t charge us for the labor,” she said.

Stage asked if an engine from the department’s junk vehicles could be used. Jordan replied that the engine types are not compatible. Stage said he supported Hudson’s suggestion. No vote was taken, as Hudson said it wasn’t needed.

During council comments, Stage said the city’s comprehensive plan is complete and will be presented to council March 10. The plan sets out priorities and ongoing projects.

Council Member Shane King said he had an open seat on the Parks Committee to fill.

Council Member Pat Peters was absent.