Saturday, August 13, 2011

Bill to fix non-functional hydrants

From the Times Newsweekly:

City Council Member Elizabeth S. Crowley, chair of the Fire and Criminal Justice Committee, introduced legislation on Tuesday, Aug. 2, that would require the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to fix fire hydrants throughout the city in a timely manner.

According to Crowley, the bill aims to ensure that, when fire companies respond to a fire, they will have a working hydrant to hook up to.

The legislation comes after an audit done by City Comptroller John C. Liu, which revealed that a significant amount of repairs did not meet the DEP’s internal time goals. The comptroller’s audit revealed that, on average, it took the DEP over 15 days to fix high priority fire hydrants, which the FDNY defines as hydrants near schools, hospitals, and seniorcitizen housing, among others, and 18 days to repair regular hydrants.

Citywide, 43 fire hydrants went over a year without being properly repaired, according to a report. One hydrant in particular, at 116th Street and Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill, took 368 days to fix.

Crowley’s office noted that the DEP does not have any written standards for repairing hydrants in New York City, only an internal goal to repair high-priority hydrants within 10 days. Consequently, 38 percent of the hydrants surveyed did not meet this standard.

As described, the legislation will require that the DEP repair high-priority hydrants within seven calendar days of receiving a complaint and regular hydrants within 10 days. The agency will also be required to establish a method for reporting tracking the repair of all hydrants.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank God.

Another law that will to little but get its sponsors press.

Joe said...

I'm not to confident.
I seen one of these replaced with the nozzles facing the sidewalk on Seneca ave.
The bozo'z working for the contractor installed it 180 degrees backwards. I assume the inspector checked it "completed" without even inspecting the job.

Woodhaven Residents Block Association said...

Not for nothing -- but do we REALLY NEED A BILL to fix hydrants that don't work?

Um.. Yeah.

Listen -- I'm new to all this stuff -- forgive me if I'm a little slow --

Recently, I was trying to help a resident get a street light fixed. It took almost 8 weeks to get it fixed --

2 MONTHS TO GET A LIGHT FIXED.

311 pointed to Con Ed. Con Ed pointed to the City. The City asked for directions.

Too bad we can't just manage our workload without having to make laws.

Ed Wendell
President
Woodhaven Residents Block Association
woodhaven-nyc.org,

Anonymous said...

Cities are supposed to be able to do stuff like this without legislation.

Anonymous said...

We need to bill the author of the bill for shaving his bill on the window sill. But he must post no bill, until he drafts a bill to charge the bill for sharpening the bill. That includes bills of attainder, lading, indictment, particulars or sales.

Anonymous said...

stop the little bastards who open the hydrants and run them dry.