An apparent ongoing disagreement between the Anton Volunteer Fire Department (AFD) and the North Hopkins Water District (NHWD) has left the small department that serves the eastern end of the county without water.
According to fire chief Daniel Rowland, at the end of each month, all volunteer fire departments are required to submit a report to the water district detailing their water usage from the department’s hydrant. These uses could include filling water tanks, washing fire trucks or any other routine activity which fire departments perform during the month.
“We aren’t required to pay for that water,” he said. “We are just required to keep track of it and turn it into the water district. That helps them know that the water was being used by the department and there wasn’t a water leak in a line somewhere.”
Daniel explained, however, that although fire departments are not charged for that water, if they do not submit the report, NHWD is allowed to charge them a penalty of up to $100 per month.
“That is in our tariff with the Kentucky Public Service Commission,” said NHWD superintendent Steve Oakley. “We have to issue a water loss report to the PSC each month, and if we don’t have their report by the tenth of the month, we have to report any water they use as a loss. PCS says if their report isn’t turned in on time, we charge them $100.”
Fire Department Secretary Sarah Rowland said that she had been submitting those reports via email, tagging the AVFD board chairman as well as NHWD. Last year she said she was notified that the water district was having trouble printing those reports so they needed to be turned in on paper.
“This I (did) until October 3rd, when we received a bill in the mail for $700,” Sarah said. “You can imagine my surprise, (I) was unaware there was even an issue.”
The bill was for months in which NHWD says the department did not file its monthly report. Both Daniel and Sarah Rowland say those reports were submitted on time. When the bill came, they say they resubmitted all of the reports via email.
Oakley insists the reports were not submitted on time.
“This wasn’t the first time,” he stated. “We’ve let them slide in the past. All they have to do is get us the reports on time. They aren’t the only ones who have to do that. So does the Hanson Fire Department.”
Daniel said that they did not hear back from the water district. In the meantime, the hydrant itself was damaged during the artic blast that hit the county on Dec. 23.
“Some of my people were at the department after hours when they heard water running,” he said. “They contact the water district and a guy came out and disconnect the hydrant. He said once the snow and ice was gone, (NHWD) would come out and check the hydrant.”
Monday was exactly a month to the day the hydrant was disconnected, and Daniel said nobody from NHWD has been by to look at it.
“The next closest hydrant is out Anton Road at Tunco,” he said, saying that a fire truck would have to go there to refill its tanks. “Its not that far, but that distance could mean the difference in life and death if there is a fire.”
Oakley contradicts that report.
“They called me on Dec. 23 about a water leak,” he said. “I came out there that night but there wasn’t a leak. The hydrant had not been shut off good and was running. That water had leaked down around the hydrant. At that point it was froze up and I couldn’t shut the hydrant off, so I had to disconnect it to get the water to stop.”
Oakley said that full service to that hydrant has since been restored and can be used for firefighting.
Daniel said the department received a notice from NHWD last Wednesday threatening to disconnect their water if they did not pay the outstanding bill. He said that on Thursday he contacted Judge-Executive Jack Whitfield, who offered to arrange a meeting between the two organizations, although neither falls directly under the Fiscal Court’s purview.
Fire fighters from the Anton Volunteer Fire Department (AFD) arrived at the station over the weekend to discover that the North Hopkins Water District (NHWD) had disconnected their water service due to an ongoing billing dispute. According to Daniel, this wasn’t the hydrant with the disputed bill, which has been disconnected for a month, this was the actual water service to the building, which fire fighters use for washing hands and going to the restroom.
“I don’t even know how it could be legal to shut that service off,” he said. “We’re not just paid in full at the station, we have a -$135.29 balance.”
Oakley said that the hydrant needed to fight fires and save lives is operational and ready to go.
“The only water that is shut off is for the building, they hydrant is turned on,” he said. “That’s what they use for cooking and for the bathrooms. They are a volunteer department, not a full time fire department, so they aren’t there all the time anyway.”
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