BRIDGEPORT TO REOPEN TUESDAY GAS-LINE LEAK FOUND 4 FEET UNDERGROUND.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Gas Company workers are replacing connections on a gas line under the 2 1/2-year-old Bridgeport Elementary School in Valencia, closed much of this week because of a chronic leak.

The work is expected to be completed today and school will resume Tuesday - Monday is a holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

School officials smelled a gas leak a week ago but because of heavy rain over the weekend couldn't get it repaired. On Monday, Principal Evie Gustafson stood in the school driveway in the deluge, turning away parents who hadn't gotten the word that the school was closed.

A crew from the utility found a corroded connection 4 feet underground, said Judy Fish, superintendent of the Saugus Union School District.

``The connection actually had a hole in it,'' she said.

Repairs, delayed by heavy rain and school, resumed Wednesday. But when the gas main was turned on again, the odor returned. School officials turned off the gas main again.

``We didn't have heat, but fortunately, Wednesday was relatively warm,'' Fish said.

An emergency school board meeting was called Wednesday night and the board agreed to shut down the school for two days so all the connections - damaged or not - could be replaced and the lines further tested.

Fish said the district would likely ask the state for a waiver so the 925 pupils won't have to make up the four days of school they missed.

The cause of the leaks is being investigated, but the timing indicates the damage could have been caused by the storm, she said.

Patricia Farrell Aidem, [phone]

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Above, David Therasse, left, and Tony DiTommaso of the Saugus Union District remove the concrete over a leaking gas line at Bridgeport Elementary School on Thursday. District employee Robert Ammerman, above left, digs a hole so the line can be repaired.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer