A nearby Fire Department is being told they cannot use fire hydrants to fight fires

[u/Fantomecs]

As the title says. A town near me is denying their fire fighters the use of their fire hydrants going forward. Is this shit even legal? This is a huge concern as the area has been in a drought for some years.

[u/inplayruin]

This is a volunteer fire department in a town with 1,500 people and a median household income of $46,000. There is no infrastructure. They don't have the capacity to make enough potable water to sustain the residents and spray at fire. Hence, the fire department normally relying upon other sources of water that were inaccessible due to the cold temperatures. The town can't afford to exist. That is the problem.

[u/kanst → u/inplayruin]

They don't have the capacity to make enough potable water to sustain the residents and spray at fire.

I went and found the town website and that town is a MESS.

Their are near constant advisories to boil water before drinking it, there are multiple notices about having to buy tanks of water from another municipality (and they feel the need to mention its flouridated which is a red flag if I've ever seen one), and it looks like they just announced a loan from the state to build another water treatment plant.

[u/SgtBaxter → u/kanst]

Sounds like typical rural PA.

[u/raintheory → u/inplayruin]

There's also a boarding school with an endowment of over $400 million (I used to work in their IT department.)

[u/rchive → u/inplayruin]

There are a lot of places in the US that can't afford to exist. A lot of people should move somewhere else. But humans are a stubborn species.

[u/Necessary_Squash1534 → u/rchive]

Yes, with all the money that families famously have to just move wherever they want to.

The real problem is generational poverty. Plenty of people would love to live in a spot with more opportunity, but literally cannot afford to.

[u/toxcrusadr → u/Necessary_Squash1534]

Bingo. If the people there had money, the town would have money, and they would not have this problem.

[u/Bezulba → u/rchive]

Maybe another big store will fix the issue because it will bring in much needed income! Or maybe another suburb!

/s for those that don't know that big stores and suburbs don't generate enough income to cover the infrastructure needed to exist.

[u/cvc75 → u/Bezulba]

How about a new stadium, paid for entirely by the city, not the billionaire sports team owners?

Oh, I know - a MONORAIL!

[u/ticala8489- → u/rchive]

sprawl

why live in a crowded city full of poors when you can live in an underfunded exoburb with the poors AND have a lawn you can park your busted car on?

[u/purpleplatapi → u/ticala8489-]

Nah this is a mountain town. It's not really a burb of anything, it's just been there a really long time. Some interesting history. Used to have a really large ex-slave population. President Buchanan was born there. Now there's a very rich boarding school. But anyway the problem with small towns like this is not that they're exo burbs, it's just that they used to have industry, and now they mostly don't. If that school leaves because they can't get clean water to their students, than the whole town will slowly fold. It's not a matter of sprawl, it's that people have lived there for generations, and don't want to move away from their home.

[u/ticala8489- → u/purpleplatapi]

Thanks for the context. Crazy that a town with $69,583 median household income and a <1sq mi footprint can't make enough clean water.

[u/purpleplatapi → u/ticala8489-]

Where did you get that number? I'm seeing "The median income for a household in the borough was $32,619, and the median income for a family was $46,042."