HART - At Tuesday’s Hart City Council meeting, City Manager Rob Splane provided an update to council members regarding recent concerns over the city’s non-working fire hydrants.
For context, Splane shared a document dated Aug. 1, 2023, of a meeting held in February of that same year, where he, along with DPW Superintendent Brad Whitney, Hart Fire Chief Dwight Fuehring and Oceana’s Emergency Manager Troy Maloney, had met to discuss the city’s water system, fire hydrant maintenance and emergency planning.
The report titled “Working Together for Public Safety” included several fire hydrant concerns to be addressed, including, the creation of an updated water system map, ordering easier-to-see signage, creating a hydrant maintenance policy and hydrant exercise policy, having a record of information for each individual hydrant, and training/education, including basic hydraulics coursework, as presented by the State of Michigan, for all firefighters. The report also noted this collaboration marked the first time in decades the city and fire department had worked so closely together.
Following that meeting, the fire department asked and was granted permission to flush all of the city’s hydrants themselves, a task usually conducted annually by the DPW. As a result, they came up with a list of concerns. Splane stated that despite numerous attempts to get the list, he had not received it until recently. “We’re not placing blame. Now that we know (which hydrants are of concern) we are acting on it,” he said.
Rumors have been circulating that the city has 30 hydrants that do not work. Splane clarified those rumors by saying technically there are only nine hydrants completely inoperable, with the other 21 considered “difficult to use.”
In Splane’s explanation of the situation to the council, he feels that a hydraulic class would be a benefit to all county firefighters. “Our intention would be to invite all area firefighters to attend,” he said.
The fire department reported they would like hydrants color-coded to indicate each hydrant’s water flow. However, to limit the city’s liability, Splane suggested it might be better to color-code hydrants with what type of water main a hydrant is connected to. The fire department would also like the city to use larger and brighter “out of service” rings on non-functioning hydrants.
In other business, the city approved two resolutions. Resolution 2024-25, accepted the engagement agreement with Maner Costerisan for single audit services for FY 2024 in the amount of $5,000 and FY 2025 in the amount of $5,200. A single audit is required anytime a municipality spends $800,000 or more in federal funds, which the city has done with all of its recent infrastructure projects. Resolution 2024-26 approved the MPPA’s (Michigan Public Power Agency) recommendation to take 25 percent of the city’s ownership share in the group and put it towards the MPPA’s Belle River contracts, which in part will convert the plant from coal to natural gas. As part of MPPA, the City of Hart actually owns part of the plant. “The energy purchase from Belle River is less costly than what we purchase on the open market,” said Splane.
