Insurance Service Office (ISO) will not be re-evaluating Fannin County’s Public Protection Classification (PPC) until at least November of this year, rather than July as Fire Chief Larry Thomas had previously expected.
“I talked to the lady that I had most of the conversations with a year and a half ago, and she said that we would have to go by the effective date (November 1, 2019),” Thomas told the Fannin County Board of Commissioners during a meeting Tuesday, June 23. “The July date on the letter didn’t actually say that one year. She wanted us to go by the effective date, and then when I looked at the effective date I was like, ‘Ooh, that’s several more months.’ She said that we had to be in place with that effective date from November 2019 to November 2020 until we can get them to actually come back in and do that one year check.”
According to Thomas, while training has been affected due to COVID-19, he anticipates receiving a lower PPC rating come November and feels prepared for ISO’s inspection.
He explained that truck and pump testing is being done and fire hydrants across the county are being checked.
Post Two Commissioner Glenn Patterson asked about how fire hydrant repairs by the cities of Blue Ridge, McCaysville and Thomas explained he has been in contact with the mayors and water department employees regarding the cities’ hydrants that need to be repaired.
Post One Commissioner Earl Johnson asked who was keeping up with the cities repairs, and Thomas said, “The cities are keeping up with when they’re putting them back in service when they fix them, I’m sure, but I have asked for an update on any hydrants that have been fixed. If not, then our next check through we’ll check them. But then again if, let’s say if we answered a fire out somewhere, and that hydrant has a yellow tape with a bag across it, we know it ain’t been fixed.”
Johnson requested progress records and reports regarding hydrants going forward.
“I don’t think that’s the process we need to be doing to make sure that these things need to be fixed,” Johnson said. “I want to go ahead and make it clear that for my remaining six months here, I want to hear how we’re progressing, not what we’re doing, but how are we progressing to get this number back, because it’s a concern of everybody who pays insurance in this county. I think that was downplayed by everyone when this first went on, but now that everyone’s insurance numbers have changed, it’s a different issue now.”
Patterson questioned if the fire department knew which hydrants were in-service and out-of-service, and Thomas explained he hadn’t gotten confirmation from the cities regarding repairs, but he didn’t think the number of out-of-service fire hydrants would hurt the county’s PPC during ISO’s inspection.
Patterson asked Thomas if he thought not knowing which hydrants were still out-of-service would hurt in a fire.
Thomas responded, “Yes, it’s a disaster if we’ve got a hydrant there and it’s out-of-service and we’ve got a fire next to it. It’s bad.”
Both Patterson and Johnson explained that ensuring the cities are fixing out-of-service hydrants need to be a priority and not “put on the back burner.”
Chairman Stan Helton asked Thomas what needed to be done to get the cities motivated to repair the hydrants and said, “Everyone’s been involved this year over the last few months with all this, it’s either annexation or it’s the COVID-19 thing, and ya know this could cause a life too if we’re not handling it.”
The board asked Thomas to come up with a plan to know the status of all the hydrants in the county and ensure that all the involved parties are motivated to fix them.
Thomas asked the board, “Are we going to work something out with the city municipalities if we are the ones that damaged the fire plugs … with the side arm bush hog? I’ve witnessed several of them that’s been hit.”
Public Works Director Zack Ratcliff spoke up and said, “That’s been taken care of.”
The News Observer confirmed that email communication regarding fire hydrants in need of repair had been sent to the cities of Blue Ridge, McCaysville and Morganton.
The City of McCaysville does not have many hydrants still in need of repair, and the City of Morganton has four hydrants in need of repair at this time.
City of Blue Ridge Utility Director Rebecca Harkins did not return The News Observer’s calls for information by press time.
According to Ratcliff, only one hydrant had been damaged by bush hogging and his department handled the repair with the City of Morganton. However, both representatives from the cities of McCaysville and Morganton told The News Observer that bush hogging or mowing had caused damage to multiple hydrants in the cities.
McCaysville Water Department Superintendent Davy Ensley explained that nearly 95% were out due to bush hogging.