"Barn yard" hydrants

Private hydrants or “barn yard” hydrants have been illegal for many years within town limits. There are, however, a number of these fire plugs remaining throughout the municipality belonging to private citizens.

Like many of Moorcroft’s municipal laws, the town is still catching up on enforcement or removal of the ordinances as they come up. The reason for this ordinance, though, is safety, so the council chooses enforcement.

These old hydrants have no backflow preventer, explained Public Works Director Cory Allison at Monday night’s council meeting, so if a hose is ever attached and lies in water, “It can contaminate the water system of the whole town.”

Allison suggested distributing letters of intent to all homeowners who still have these fire plugs on their property, advising the removal of said hydrant within a certain time period or their water service will be interrupted until this requirement is met.

Councilman Paul Smoot recognizes the need for dealing with this situation and has been systematically removing the four plugs from his property as he replaces other items each year and keeps the one remaining plug padlocked to prevent any accidental opening of the valve until it is removed as well.

Allison and his crew, too, have been addressing similar spouts in common areas like parks around town by either retrofitting backflow preventers or removing the hydrant entirely. They have yet a few more with which to deal.

Mayor Dick Claar advocates the removal of all remaining barn yard hydrants, but he advised his council to give residents enough time, “I think it’s just to give people time to build it into their budget.”

After further consideration, the body decided to examine the ordinance before determining a time limit and informing those citizens involved.