When I was asked to write this horror story, visions of swollen squirrel carcasses in sewer lines and rats that had chewed water lines in 8-inch crawl spaces danced in my head. But then I thought, what about the association boards? The budgets depleted and special assessments levied. Whole emergency funds gone because of decisions made years before. One story stands out among the many as a fiduciary nightmare.
Gather round my children. Prepare
yourself for “HYDRANT HORROR!” One of the many property management companies that we service, who shall remain nameless, called about a leaking fire hydrant valve.
“The city said it’s ours because it’s on our property. Can you come take a look?” Bob, the head of maintenance asked. “I think it’s getting worse by the minute.”
“Absolutely. I’ll have one of my plumbers swing by in an hour,” I promised.
The next call came from my plumber, Larry. “They have a water line loop, circle if you will, surrounding the property with eighteen buildings and twenty-four hydrants on it. There are two main valves feeding this system. I tried turning them off. Both valves are jammed.”
In short, this meant we had to shut down the city grid and drain all the buildings and lines connected to it. Then we would have to refill and check every building on the property and the rest of the city grid after the repair.
By this time the leaking hydrant valve was bubbling out of the ground like a giant natural spring. There was no way to tell how much it had compromised the roadway next to it. We had no choice. “I’ll call the city to come out and shut it down. Better start letting people know.”
It was now about 2:00 PM. The city had a truck out within thirty minutes but refused to turn off the water until the next day. The reason was a children’s day care center and the lack of fire sprinkler systems in off-property buildings. “Sorry, but we have to have at least 8-hours to prepare,” the city inspector informed us. “You’ll just have to block off the road and surrounding area.”
“Understood,” I said resigned. “We’ll shoot for tomorrow at 9:00 AM.”
The next day we shut the water down at 9:00 AM on the button. We had posted notices and supplied water containers to the day care. We had even promised our client a not-to-exceed figure for the job. It took all of three
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