Fire Official Recommends Ordinances to Mayor & Council

The borough's fire official, Alan Silverman, attended Monday night's mayor and council work session to answer questions about two ordinances he would like to see the borough adopt. 

One of the ordinances would establish penalties for borough residents who do not clear snow from fire hydrants located in front of their homes.

"We carry shovels on our fire trucks and we know the location of the hydrants but once that fire starts, it progresses a 1,000 times a minute," said Silverman. "If we take five minutes to shovel out a hydrant that becomes a life safety issue."

Silverman said there are 353 hydrants in the borough and approximately 250 of those are located in front of homes and the rest are in front of commercial properties. The fire department shovels out the major hydrants located on Main Street, River Road and around the Brookchester complex but Silverman said it is impossible for the department to shovel them all out.

"My job is to protect the property and lives here to the best of my ability," said Silverman. "This ordinance would give us a backbone for residents who don't shovel their hydrants or who place garbage on them."

Silverman said snow is not the only problem. He has encountered residents putting their garbage out in front of the hydrants, leaning old mattresses on them and even one case where the resident put an empty garbage can over the hydrant.

Council members and the mayor had some concerns regarding the implications of enacting this ordinance. 

A key concern was for those residents who are elderly or infirm and would not be physical able to shovel their hydrants out. Silverman said that could be easily remedied once he was aware of residents who are unable to do it.

"I would write a memo to the chief and the captain of that fire company letting them know the address of the residence where person was unable to shovel and the fire company would then need to shovel it out," said Silverman.

Council President Keith Bachmann said he saw the need for the hydrants to be shoveled out but that the council had a responsibility to think of all of the things that would come along with passage of the ordinance.

"Are we passing an ordinance that puts liability on residents who don't shovel out the hydrant and then a house burns to the ground down the block?" said Bachmann.

Borough Attorney Mark Medaio said he would be looking into the issue further for the mayor and council. Silverman brought along similar ordinances that have been enacted in other local towns and Medaio would be using them as part of his review.

The council discussed two alternative options--one would have DPW workers digging out hydrants as part of the overall snow removal effort and the other was to enlist the help of junior firefighters. Silverman said due to current labor laws, junior firefighters are prohibited by law from any physical work so they could not shovel the hydrants out.

The second ordinance Silverman proposed was in regard to Knox-Boxes which are located on commercial properties throughout the borough. 

"We don't have a Knox-Box ordinance but we do have Knox-Boxes in town," said Silverman. The box is opened by a special key that only the fire department has and allows firefighters to enter the property when an alarm goes off without having to force the door open. Silverman said there are currently about 16 of them located around town on various businesses and apartment complexes dating back to 1992.

Silverman said he has a key to the boxes and there is a key on each fire truck as well. The key is universal in New Milford, opening all Knox-Boxes located in the borough. Each municipality is issued their own unique key for boxes in their town.

Silverman said the boxes cost around $240 and he would like to see an ordinance that would require remaining businesses who don't currently have them to get them and any new buildings would also be required to have one.

The mayor and council will review the information Silverman gave them along with hearing Medaio's feedback at an upcoming meeting. Both the mayor and council thanked Silverman for coming to the work session.

"We know you are here in the best interest of the town," said Mayor Ann Subrizi.