The fate of the Smale house may be sealed.

Jonathan Gula, the supervisor of the Public Works Department for Eldred Township, updated the supervisors at their meeting on April 16 about the flooding of the basement of the Smale house, which is owned by the municipality.

Gula said they were alerted to a problem after the municipality received a high electric bill for the Smale house. He said they had turned off the electricity when they winterized the house, but somehow the breaker got turned back on. Sometime during the frigid temperatures this winter, a pipe burst in the basement.

“When the pipe broke, it sprayed onto the electric panel, which tripped the breaker for the sump pump. That’s the reason why the basement flooded,” Gula said. The basement filled with 3 feet of water. “At that point, we couldn’t get into the basement. We had to pull the well cap off and cut the wires to the well pump so we could get the water to run out.”

Gula said condensation went throughout the whole building and has created a very bad mold problem on the inside.

Supervisor Chairman Scott Clark said, “We had some concerns with the mold to begin with, and this definitely did not help that.”

Demolition of the house has been an option for a number of years. Clark said the supervisors would look into the matter further and continue their discussions on its future.