HomeMy WebLinkAbout20080317 - VIII-A-3VIII-A-3
MEMO
To: Honorable Mayor and City Council
From: Tom Montgomery
Date: March 11, 2008
Re: Historic Hydrants -Project 2008-1, North Vermillion Area Improvements
When ordering the North Vermillion Area street and utility improvement, Council
directed staffto investigate the possibility of install historic hydrants within the Old
Hastings Historic District as part of the project improvements. The Operations
Committee will be meeting prior to the City Council meeting to discuss the installation of
historic hydrants and will forward a recommendation to the City Council.
STAFF RECOMiVIENDATION:
Enclosed are pictures of our current hydrant and two historic looking modern
hydrants. While either of these two historic hydrants would cost about the same as our
existing city standard hydrant, staff is recommending against installing a modern historic
hydrant for the following reasons:
1. Other Historic Districts - We have installed our standard hydrant throughout the
other two historic districts and the conservation district as part of past water
system replacements.
2. Maintenance Issues -There are about 1300 hydrants in the City and all are
Waterous hydrants (headquartered in South Saint Paul). We've been installing
our current standard hydrant, the Waterous Pacer, for at least the past 30 plus
years -with over 900 in service. Almost all the remaining hydrants are Waterous
WB-67 & WB-59 which are no longer manufactured, but which we can still get
parts for. Waterous does not make a historic looking hydrant which means that
we would not have parts available to repair the historic hydrants nor would we
have the knowledge or experience of how to repair these hydrants. Given the
small number of hydrants that would be installed within the Old Hastings Historic
District (8), we would not stock separate parts for these hydrants, but would mark
them inoperable while parts were ordered and a repair could be
scheduled with the area distributer's service representatives.
In fairness, it should also be noted that because there would • ~ ,
only be eight of these hydrants, the risk of them being out of ____ - ~'
service for maintenance is low. Nevertheless, we never like
installing non-standard components to the utility systems. ~ ~ ~
crrY of ~sruvss
Mueller Centurion
Hydrant
~ ~,
Y
~x~ -.
~<; .:'
American Darling
Hydrant
Waterous Pacer Hydrant -
Hastings Standard Hydrant