'High-pressure' repair

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette

City of McCook, Nebraska, employee Mike Jonasen, right, digs a hole in the dirt using the high-pressure water wand on the sewer department's vacuum truck, helping water crews repair a water line on an island in the 600 block of Norris Avenue Tuesday morning. Larry Dicke, superintendent of the city's waste water treatment plant, said the water wand -- "just like a water wand at a car wash" -- digs the hole while the vacuum sucks up the water and dirt. "Using the wand, we can excavate a hole without a backhoe or piles of dirt," Dicke said, and it's also very useful for digging around underground lines without damage.