Official: City soaked in hydrant cap deal

The city should demand a refund from the supplier of $1 millionin "tamper-proof" fire hydrant caps that haven't kept kids fromcooling off at the city's expense, an alderman said Thursday.

Ald. Luis V. Gutierrez (26th) said 12- and 13-year-olds in hisHumboldt Park ward can bypass the "custodian cap" in a matter ofseconds with pliers and a screwdriver.

The president of Hydra-Shield Manufacturing Inc. of Texas,supplier of the cap, said he is aware of the problem and has giventhe city a modified cap at company expense. No hydrants equippedwith the new cap have been tampered with, city officials said.

The city has 47,000 fire hydrants, 7,000 with caps.

"Nothing is going to be 100 percent (tamper-proof), but I wouldsay this is as close to a 100 percent deterrent as there is in themarketplace," said company President Henry J. Stehling.

Told of the alderman's demand for a refund, Stehling said,"That's totally out of line. There's no way they can justify that.I've done everything I can to work with the city."

Gutierrez countered that a hydrant with a modified cap atPotomac and Artesian was illegally opened this week. Some HumboldtPark hydrants have remained on for up to 24 hours at a time, causinglow water pressure and basement flooding, he said.

After the cap is bypassed, hydrants must be turned off withspecial wrenches available only to the Fire Department and WaterDepartment crews, he said.

The alderman said he would introduce a resolution at the CityCouncil's Sept. 12 meeting demanding an investigation into the $1million Hydra-Shield contract.

"We need to investigate why these caps are failing and demandour money back," Gutierrez said.

"The working people and senior citizens of our communities arearriving home to find that they do not have adequate water pressureto bathe, wash dishes or do any of the other day-to-day tasks theyneed to do. The safety of the general public is endangered everytime there is a fire and insufficient water pressure to combat it."

The alderman acknowledged "maybe there is no way" for the cityto make its fire hydrants tamper-proof. But, he said, "Then weshouldn't be foolish enough to spend $1 million on a program thatdoesn't work."

Water Commissioner Samuel W. Hurley Jr. acknowledged that somehydrants have been opened despite the custodian cap. But he said theproblems have been confined to Humboldt Park and Pilsen, where only"4 or 5 percent" of the caps were installed.