Quit Your Worrying, They Only Cost Us $22.50 Each! We Can Always Afford To Buy More Of Them!!

 

The DPW Water Department recently bought twenty new metal fire hydrant markers that are easily bendable, have bright orange "flags" made of heavy duty plastic, are readily available to children and drunk people to "play" with, and also add charm to a city whose few charms seem to be slowly but surely disappearing!  And, of course, the hydrants can't do without the markers (not until this year, that is)!  Unless, of course, it's one of the many out-of-service fire hydrants found around the city.  No need to waste any money, time or markets on those useless things! No need to be reminded where they are! Just leav 'em be!

At the June meeting of the so-called SAFETY Committee held four weeks ago, committee chair Henry Haddad made Fire Chief Shawn Hoffman aware of an out of service hydrant that the Fire Department had apparently forgotten about or maybe never been aware of at all.  At least Chief Hoffman wasn't aware of it.  His response to Henry?  "Well take a look at it."  That useless hydrant is found on one of Hudson's most obscure streets: the dead end found at the end of Cross Street known as Tanners Lane.  5 houses (one of them abandoned) are found toward the end of Tanners Lane, none of which Rob Perry, the Water Department or the Fire Department appear to care about (including the people who live in the houses, of course).  Here are a pair of recent pictures showing the useless piece of metal that was once a working fire hydrant on Tanners Lane.  Notice that it does not have a hydrant marker attached to it, new or old.  Perhaps that's the crux of the problem.  It doesn't appear that the Fire Department has had "a look at it" for the past four weeks.  Or four years.

In the middle of the 200 block
of State Street, for years. 

By now, most HUDseen regulars are aware of the yearslong out-of-service hydrant on North 7th Street located adjacent to the Firestation and directly across the street from the Depot Lofts apartment building whose skeleton is made of wood.  For everyone else, here it is:

(Did you hear about the firestation in Menands that was recently badly damaged by a fire, including one of its fire engines being a total loss?)

Marker needed?  Why?  For whom?