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Council to track outside hydrant use with QR codes after discrepancy review; ordinance change on billing drew pushback
Summary
Council members flagged hydrant-list discrepancies and agreed to implement a QR-code tracking system for outside fire-company water use; a proposal to charge for house-fire hydrant use only when insurance is involved was opposed by the council president and left unresolved.
Council members reviewed hydrant records and proposed steps to track outside use at a June 1 work session.
Chris Minnich said the 2024 hydrant list contained 38 discrepancies while 2025 had 11, and he said he will continue researching the remaining issues with John Krantz. Minnich described plans for Scott Gingerich to develop a formula to estimate water used by outside fire companies and said the borough will deploy a QR code system to capture usage by those companies.
Mr. Minnich raised the idea of an ordinance that would charge for hydrant water used on house fires only when insurance covers the loss. President Tony Musso said he would not support revisiting that approach and would not vote for it again. Mr. Klinedinst observed some insurance policies may cover water use, while Borough Manager Michelle Poole said the matter could fall under the water authority’s purview because hydrants are owned by that authority even though the borough currently maintains them.
Council did not adopt a change at the work session; members asked staff to continue researching hydrant discrepancies and to develop usage-tracking procedures for outside companies.
