They're Still Here! At Just $1,900 A Day!

GPRS listening to a fire hydrant on the
500 block of State Street in April

Almost 3 months ago, I reported on a company from Toledo, Ohio by the name of GPRS that was doing work for Hudson DPW in the form of leak detection of our underground fire hydrant pipes.  Titled Why Ohio? Why Not California?, from February 28th, it is the second most widely read article Hudseen has published, and it is time to revisit the issue. 

As I wrote then, I had gotten conflicting information about the relationship between DPW and GPRS.  I was told by someone that GPRS was here to train its workers, so DPW would not be charged a cent for the leak detection work being done.  Then I was told DPW had hired GPRS.  I was also told that GPRS would be here for one week, then told it would be 6 weeks.  At last month's council meeting, Robert Perry mentioned the leak detection work going on but failed to give any specifics other than a few leaks had been detected (he did not mention the name of the company or anything about them).  Confused and suspicious, I decided to FOIL for GPRS contracts and invoices from DPW.

Sometime in late April, nearly three months after DPW signed a $1,900/day contract with GPRS, I took a picture of two GPRS workers doing their detection task (I will call it listening) at a fire hydrant near the intersection of 6th & State.  Yesterday, one month later, as I approached the same intersection, I noticed two GPRS workers getting into their company pickup truck parked in front of the same hydrant as if they had just been listening to it again.  Sure enough, they then drove west on State and parked near the next fire hydrant on State Street, close to Dodge Street.  The 2 workers got out of their truck, proceeded to listen to that hydrant, and I took a picture of them in action.

GPRS workers listening to a fire hydrant on the
500 block of State Street on May 22nd.

The DPW clerk signed the $1,900/day contract with GPRS on February 2nd, 2023 (see it below).  I have no idea how many days that GPRS workers have been doing their listening in Hudson since then, but I do know that 15 weeks after the $1,900/day contract was signed, GPRS workers were seen listening to fire hydrants on State Street that they had listened to at least once before.

Questions remain:  Why is GPRS still in Hudson listening to hydrants that they have already listened to 15 weeks after the work began?  How much longer will GPRS be here?  Is Hudson DPW not able to obtain and learn how to use the hydrant listening technology that GPRS uses? How much is GPRS's work costing the City Of Hudson?  When I get answers to any of these questions, especially the last one, I will let them be known.

 Stay tuned for updates!