Directors Approve a Testing Plan
Firm that Specializes in hydrant testing to begin work in May
As I noted in my newsletter to subscribers, the PAWSD Board called a special meeting Friday (April 4) afternoon to approve a hydrant testing program.
The decision came after town and county elected officials pressured PAWSD General Manager Justin Ramsay to come up with a hydrant testing plan. The town and county met with Ramsay on March 25 after the PAWSD Board discussed hydrant testing March 13, but took no action.
The PAWSD Board delcared an emergency and set aside $127,000 from its $55 million budget to pay for testing. The company will charge $111 per hydrant (approximately 1,100-1,140 hydrants) and complete testing within 12 weeks.
Cost of the testing program will not be added to ratepayers bills.
During the summer the PAWSD staff hopes to hire local help to learn how to test hydrants and to begin a regular program of testing without hiring an outside contractor.
Board members said they identified where they can pull the estimated $125,000 cost of the program from PAWSD’s $55 million annual budget without a rate increase.
Director Bill Hudson proposed to delay approval until meeting with the fire district board. His motion died for a lack of second.
Hudson emailed me Friday evening to say I had mischaracterized his vote in my newsletter.
“My motion was to allow the Fire District two weeks to respond to a request for a joint meeting, and if we didn’t get a positive response within two weeks, we would move ahead independently.
Your newsletter made it sound like my proposal was to wait until the Fire District agreed to a meeting. That was not my motion.”