Deborah Fato got a surprise last week when she drove home from work and pulled into her Lavon neighborhood.
The padlocks on the fire hydrants along her street had been removed.
“It was such a relief,” said Fato, who had mounted a campaign to have the hydrant locks removed throughout the Collin County city. “It finally happened.”
Her relief comes more than a year after city officials discovered that padlocks had been placed on the hydrants by the Lavon Special Utility District, which supplies water to Lavon and owns the hydrants.
Utility district officials said the locks were needed to prevent water theft. But Lavon officials condemned the move, saying the locks were a public safety hazard that could impede firefighting efforts.
“They’re putting stealing water above public safety,” Mayor Charles Teske said last year after supplying first responders with bolt cutters to remove the locks.
The impasse seems to have been resolved in May when the utility district board voted to replace the padlocks with another locking mechanism that deters theft while allowing access for firefighters.
“I applaud their efforts,” Teske said of the board’s decision to install devices that are “more user friendly for the fire department.”
Herman Stork, president of the utility district’s board of directors, did not respond to requests for comment.
All fire hydrants in the city have now been equipped with the new locking devices, said Amy Cortez, public information officer for the Nevada Volunteer Fire Department, which serves Lavon.
The new devices require special wrenches to unlock the hydrants. “They’re getting those to us this week,” Cortez said. “We’ll have one tool per apparatus.”
She said the Lavon Special Utility District also sent representatives to train firefighters on the new locks.
“They did a lot of research about how to protect the water and allow easier access for the fire department,” she said of the district.
Last year, the district had supplied the fire department with keys for the old locks. But there was at least one instance in which the key couldn’t be found and the lock had to be removed with bolt cutters.
The new locking devices resolve this problem, Cortez said. “We’re not stumbling around for keys. It does provide easier access,” she said. “We’re grateful they came to this decision.”
For her part, Fato credits new SUD board member David Barnhart with researching the new locking system and convincing his colleagues to invest in it.
She’s glad that her anti-lock campaign is no longer needed.
It featured a logo, created by Donna Ruth Cole Carter, of a locked fire hydrant with the words “Take it off! Lavon, Tx. 2015.” It was emblazoned on hats, T-shirts and magnets.
Fato said the campaign grew out of her frustration with utility district officials.
While she figures the campaign cost her a couple of thousand dollars, Fato feels it was money well-spent to raise awareness of the issue.
“I wasn’t willing to put my home, my investment, my life at risk,” she said.
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