Clik here to view.
By Steve Metsch
Decades of paint – some three-quarters of an inch thick – will be sandblasted off most of the fire hydrants in McCook this summer.
“For 30, 40 years we’ve been painting over them. They’ve never been sandblasted. It’s well overdue,” Mayor Terrance Carr said during the most recent board meeting.
“What I heard, over the years, summer help’s job was to get a five-gallon bucket and a scraper. Get out there, sit on the bucket, get a sun tan and paint the hydrants. Never sand blasted. Never scraped,” Carr said after the meeting.
There are approximately 360 fire hydrants in McCook. About 90 hydrants are on private property owned by businesses. The village only plans to sandblast and paint the other 270, Carr said. But all will be tested for leaks.
As Carr noted, all that old paint can be a safety hazard.
The mayor not-so-fondly recalled trying to open a hydrant several years ago.
Carr enlisted the help two village employees. The three stood on a pipe attached to the hydrant’s cap. “That’s around 600 pounds,” he said.
You guessed it.
“And we couldn’t budge it. Six hundred pounds. We finally took a backhoe, pushed the pipe down and got it open,” he said.
The sandblasting and repainting by GO Painters Inc., will cost $35,000. A new color has not been selected.
However, before that is done, Advanced Technical Services Ltd., will be paid $15,000 to test for leaks in the hydrants, public and private.
“They may own the plug on top, but everything underground is us,” Carr said of private hydrants. “We’re going to make sure the valves are working right on all the fire hydrants.”
Another $25,000 will be paid to M.E. Simpson Co. for hydrant maintenance and flow testing.
“When it’s all done and everything’s all working great, we’re going to make them beautiful,” Carr said.
The entire project will cost $75,000 with work expected to begin as soon as possible.
The village board unanimously approved each contract at its May 20 meeting.
Fire Chief David DeLeshe said the hydrants “directly affect our operations and we really appreciate (the plan).”
“We exercise them every year, regardless, so they’re not difficult to open. But it’s just that, over time, the many coats of paint. … Appearance wise this will be a much cleaner look,” DeLeshe said.
Starting next year, McCook will spend $15,000 annually testing for leaks in the hydrants, Carr said.
Chief Water Operator Kevin LasCola has first-hand knowledge about painting hydrants.
“I was out there a long time ago painting those hydrants. Every time I worked on them, they’d drive me crazy. You couldn’t get them apart,” he said. “This is going to be a good thing.”
After the meeting, several firefighters modeled red T-shirts they will be wearing on Fridays to honor those serving in the armed forces.
Red was chosen because “it stands for remember everyone deployed,” DeLeshe said.
In other action, the board approved installing new front doors at the MAX. The original doors have never been replaced.
“They work, but (there has been) wear and tear over the years,” Maddie Martino, general manager of the MAX, said. “It’s a much-needed upgrade.”