The city council in North Adams, Massachusetts has approved a $300,000 borrowing request from Mayor Tom Bernard to fix about 55 fire hydrants.
The request comes as North Adams confronts its ailing safety infrastructure. A pair of fires in the city have underscored the need to attend to around 100 broken hydrants.
“We've got staff out, inspecting cleaning hydrants throughout the city and then bagging the hydrants that are inoperative," said Mayor Tom Bernard. "So we're making visible the scope of the issue. We're also making sure that our lists are up to date as we do this. So, verifying GPS locations, identifying hydrants that aren't on the list, identifying hydrants that are misidentified either as in or out of service.”
Bernard told WAMC this week that he intends to budget the repair of the remaining broken hydrants in a long-term capital plan.
