By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
Who is responsible for the maintenance and replacement of the 30 private fire hydrants located on large commercial or multi-family residential properties throughout Martensville?
That question has prompted the City of Martensville to draft a bylaw establishing that private landowners are ultimately responsible for installing, inspecting, maintaining and potentially putting in new fire hydrants as required, which will soon be heard at a future council meeting.
A draft version of Bylaw No. 17-2025 was presented at the committee of the whole meeting on September 9 by Director of Infrastructure and Planning Matt Gruza.
He indicated that fire hydrants are required to be installed on private properties when they’re sufficently large that “the hydrants on the street don’t meet the requirements for spacing.”
In the past, the city has informally helped out with maintenance and inspection of private hydrants, but this past spring, it was determined there are five private hydrants that are out of service and need to be replaced, Gruza said.
As such, the question arose as to who is responsible for those costs, which could run anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000.
Gruza noted in his report that the city’s limited budget for water and sewer infrastructure would not allow the municipality to absorb those costs without impacting other critical infastructure.
“We did some research, and found out quite a number of cities have specific bylaws to regulate the requirements and the responsibilities around private hydrants,” said Gruza.
He stressed that the city had not funded the replacement of private hydrants in the past, avoiding any potential precedent for those costs falling on the city.
Although the draft bylaw puts the onus for installing, maintaining and replacing private hydrants on to the landowners, as well as requiring them to submit written records about any work being done, Gruza suggested the city will probably continue to help out with maintenance and inspections for at least the current year.
“As we roll this out, I would anticipate that…we would still continue our annual winterizing and maintenance and use this as an education period to inform property-owners, because again we understand that this is an unexpected cost and potentially a change in their operations,” he said.
If a private property-owner for some reason couldn’t afford to replace a broken hydrant, Gruza suggested they might look at doing the work and charging the property-owner over a period of time.
It is worth noting that the bylaw does contain references to warnings and potential compliance orders if the bylaw is contravened.