North Adams Committee Recommends Against Hydrant Ordinance

The General Government Committee is recommending a proposed ordinance creating a fire hydrant division be filed, saying it raised a number of complicated issues and legalities, and was best addressed by the policies and procedures of the departments involved.

"We're not voting on hydrants tonight, we're voting on whether to put in a new department in order to maintain hydrants," said member Wayne Wilkinson. "I see no need for that. We have a plan from the mayor which I fully support. When he brings it to council I'll certainly vote on it. Let's just fix the problem."

Mayor Thomas Bernard, just hours before the meeting, gave an update on the completed audit of the hydrant system and proposed a borrowing of $300,000 to have the current 55 or so nonfunctioning hydrants replaced.

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