GUILFORD — Five fire hydrants along Route 5 need to be replaced, and work on that should begin in the next few weeks, according to Fire Chief Jared Bristol.
The hydrants were installed when the village of Algiers tapped into Brattleboro's municipal water line in 2013.
But, as Bristol told the Selectboard members during their May 11 meeting, the hydrants “weren't installed with the correct heights,” and the town “need[s] to do that.”
Bristol told the board he reached out for help to Skip Fletcher, utilities supervisor with the Brattleboro Public Works Department. He said Fletcher will both supply the new hydrants and use his department's truck and crane to “swap out the hydrants.”
Some of the hydrants were set too low on the side of the road and will require construction of a retaining wall to correct the height, Bristol told the board.
In a follow-up conversation with The Commons, Bristol said Bernie LaRock & Son of Guilford will complete this portion of the project.
The project requires permits, which Bristol said he has obtained.
Bristol anticipates the only variable in the project is how long the town will need traffic control on the state highway.
“If we get into any lane of the highway at all, we have to have certified traffic control there to do that,” he said to the board.
How many days traffic control is needed, at an estimated $1,200 per day, will depend on how long it takes to remove the old hydrants and install the new ones.
“It depends on what they get into when they dig,” Bristol said to the board. “If [the hydrant] comes right out because it's new and unbolts, beautiful.”