Newspaper Page Text
The Champion, Thursday, May 21 - 27, 2015
LOCAL
Page 15A
Hydrants Continued
and paint a hydrant on Idle
Creek Way in Decatur.
A partnership between
the county’s fire and
watershed management
departments, the program
Fullum said “is really an
effort to make fire hydrants
a little more visible in our
neighborhoods.
“Obviously, fire hydrants
are our lifelines,” Fullum said.
“When firefighters go into a
building they think of that
hose as their way of not only
getting back out, but also of
saving our citizens.”
From Page 1A
serving life in our county,”
May said.
“Were glad to be out
here saving lives and saving
time,” said Commissioner
Larry Johnson. “As we
get into the summer time,
things can always happen
with fires and deck fires and
barbecues. We want to make
sure that the fire hydrant—
the flow—is right. This test
ing will only help us.”
“When we pull up to a
structure, whether it be a
house, apartment, we make
a determination on what our
nj our ibU recommendation
was commented that we should
add a DiDth color because we
do have some hydrants here in
DeKalb County that they term as
super hydrants.'
-Deputy ChleC Garrett Smith
Each hydrant will be col
or-coded to show how much
pressure it has: red for 0-500
gallons per minute (gpm);
orange, 500-1,000 gpm;
green, 1,000-1,500 gpm; and
blue, 1,500-2,000 gpm.
“[In] our ISO recom
mendation it was com
mented that we should add
a fifth color because we do
have some hydrants here in
DeKalb County that they
term as super hydrants,”
said Deputy Chief Garrett
Smith. “For our system we
will be adding gold for any
thing that flows above 2,000
gallons per minute.”
The barrel of each hy
drant will be silver.
May said the color
coding and testing is “really
about the quality of life of
our county—to know that
when our men and women
show up to a scene where
there may be a fire, they
have the ability to know
what they’re going into to
preserve life, to preserve
property in the county.
“Rest assured, DeKalb
County. We are doing those
things that are necessary to
make sure that we are pre
required gpm is going to be
to extinguish that fire effec
tively and safely,” Smith said.
“We pull up to this hydrant;
they see it’s got a blue top on
it. They know they have at
least 1,500 gallons a minute
available from this hydrant,
which in most cases is going
to be more than enough for
operations on a residential
structure fire.
“If they pull up and it’s a
red top hydrant and it only
gives you 500 gallons a min
ute or less, they know right
[off] the bat that they need
to bring another water sup
ply in,” Smith said. “This is a
huge, huge, huge benefit to
us coming off the truck.”
To date, Smith said,
the watershed manage
ment department has spent
$90,000 on flow test kits,
cap-and-gauge kits and “a
whole lot of paint for 23,000
hydrants.”
The hydrants are being
painted by firefighters, fire
recruits, fire reservists and
homeowners associations.
Reservists have painted
more than 800 hydrants,
Smith said.
Residents and many who grew up in the historic Black Beacon community gathered May 16 to celebrate the
dedication of the new Beacon Municipal Center. Photos by Travis Hudgons
Beacon
Continued From Page 1A
spirit, it’s in our hearts.”
Wilson said she asked city officials
about what the city could do to reserve the
history of the community.
“They [were] willing [and] decided that
they would help,” she said.
The exhibit includes pictures of former
students and provides information about
their accomplishments. The exhibit also
includes facts about the Trinity High School
1965 football state championship team.
Bobby Pierce, who graduated from Trin
ity High School in 1965, said the people of
the old Beacon Hill community needed the
historic element of the community in the
center.
“We truly needed some of it because...
I’ve seen all of it removed, all of it,” he said.
“It was nothing left but the apartments—
Gateway, Allen-Wilson and Swanton
Heights. Everything else was whipped out.”
Decatur Mayor Jim Baskett said the
center has been a dream of the city’s for a
long time.
“When we talked about it, and I looked
at plans and so forth, I never imagined it
was going to look this wonderful and be this
beautiful,” he said.
Most of the structures of the complex
include portions of the old buildings, ac
cording to Andrew Rutledge of Rutledge
Alcock Architect.
“It was a modern building for its time,
so we wanted to pull the rest of the build
ing—the work that we did off of that,”
Rutledge said.“We saved the front of the
building on Electric Avenue as well as W.
Trinity Place, three quarters of the structure
in the new gym is the old structure. In the
school building, every bit of the structure is
existing structure from the old building. We
tried to save as much as we could.”
Baskett said all residents could benefit
from the center.
“We haven’t done any real capital im
provement projects in 50 years, and the
police department was just in the old school
building and they had really poor digs,” he
said. “The school board [building] is a big
improvement, a real access for city schools.
We all benefit from it.”
“We’re very proud of the building that
we have and we hope that it’s very warm
and inviting to the community,” said De
catur Police Chief Mike Booker. “We can
hold [community] meetings in here now, it’s
very functional. We’ve been patiently wait
ing and we’re very excited that it’s here.”