Bogalusa Public Works Director James Hall said water in Poplas Quarters will go out either Friday or Saturday, as city workers replace a fire hydrant and a valve in the area.

The areas that will be affected will be Austin Street to Royal Street and Redmond to Bayer. The work is due to a leak, and Hall said the job should take five or six hours.

“We’re going to try to locate it by Friday, but if we can’t do it Friday then we’ll get it done Saturday,” he said.

In an email, Bogalusa City Councilwoman Gloria Kates asked residents to plan ahead for the outage.

“Make sure you have plenty of clean drinking water,” Kates said. “Fill up the plastic trash cans and set them beside the toilet to allow for flushing. Fill up some large pots and pans and set them on the kitchen counter for cooking and rinsing, labeling them as ‘drinkable’ or ‘rinse only.’

“Fill a dishpan with warm water (heated on the stove) and dish soap and put the dirty dishes to soak for the afternoon. Open a couple of packages of handi-wipes and place them strategically. Please share (this) with residents (who) may live within the targeted water outage areas.”

Hall also announced that he will be closing off entire residential streets for water and sewer repairs.

In the past, Hall said he’d only closed off part of the street with barricades, but he noted that motorists had been removing the barricades and causing danger to his workers.

“We have people who get out and move these barricades and drive through them, and all of a sudden I’ll have a plumber turn around and a car will be headed for them,” Hall said.

He added this won’t affect major thoroughfares, and he expects the new policy to have minimal effect on drive times.

“Bogalusa is not a metropolis where you can’t get around,” he said. “You can drive one block down and one block around and get to where you’re going.”