FTLComm - Tisdale - June 7, 2000 |
Wednesday morning, seems like a good time to go dig up a street. One could consider
this just a simple form of road bump making. The town crew converges on a location
and up comes the street. Though that is the end result there is a much more appropriate plan
involved. Each year the town selects about eight aging hydrants and they are replaced
with new ones. This particular target has been comfortably sitting on this corner
looking after the dogs of the neighbourhood and ready to fight a fire at a momemts
notice, since the early fifties. During that time it has experienced some rusting
and just doesn't work that well any more. So after fifty years it makes sense to retire this piece of cast iron and start fresh with another one. In the mean time it means digging up the old one and then making a huge hole in the street so that a new connection can be made to the main water line. This is not a small or minor project but definitely tells us that the town is planning ahead and looking after the infrastructure so that in fifty years time a fire hydrant will be sitting on this corner doing its duty just like its predecessor. |