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Brant councillors reject condo group request

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Brant County councillors have turned down a request to inspect and maintain fire hydrants at condominiums.

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Councillors,  at an operations and administration committee meeting, voted to recommend not approving a request from the Brant Condominium Corporations Association, which represents condo owners in the county and Brantford. The matter will be dealt with at county council meeting Sept. 28.

Rob Walton, Brant’s general manager of operations, said the municipality lacks the staff in its water division to provide the service.

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“Taking on this task, even for the condominium properties only, would overwhelm staff and their ability to effectively carry out their current day-to-day activities and whatever daily surprises they encounter,” he said in a report to councillors.

Walton noted that condos often use “off-brand” hydrants that municipal staff aren’t trained to work on. In addition, the county doesn’t have an inventory of parts to maintain them, he said.

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Other reasons cited for turning down the request include the challenge of scheduling work to be done on private property and the municipality unnecessarily taking on liability.

Representatives of the condo association made the request in February, telling councillors that Brantford provides the service to condos.

They also said hydrants at some condos hadn’t been inspected in years.

Walton, in his report, said there is a way to address that problem.

County staff will provide a yearly reminder to property owners to carry out hydrant inspections and the owners also will be required to provide a record of the inspections. County staff will follow up with those who don’t provide reports, he said.

“There are several private companies that inspect and maintain private fire hydrants,” Walton said. “County staff has a good rapport with many of these companies who carry out the work for the property owners who dutifully maintain their hydrants as required.”

Vball@postmedia.com

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