Boulder Creek fire hydrant painting project
Posted by Janet Coit
on Feb 24, 2015
Boulder Creek fire hydrant painting project
Last year, the San Lorenzo Valley Rotary Club invited Boulder Creek Fire Chief Kevin McClish as a speaker at one of our meeting. He spoke about a very interesting program about the BC Fire Department Internship for high school students to gain experience in fire training. The Chief was visited a few days later, by a couple of members of our Rotary Club to see if he could think of any opportunities for volunteer service we could present to the San Lorenzo Valley Interact Club, which is the High school service club we sponsor, at SLV High School.
It didn’t take the Chief long to tell us a major need his fire district had, which was the painting of all the hydrants. Being a volunteer fire department, he really didn’t have the manpower or funds to have the hydrants painted. When we asked how many hydrants there were in the district he told us…409. We told him we would present the project idea to the Interact Club and get back to him.
The San Lorenzo Valley High School Interact was a small, but growing club. It had 6 members two years ago and had grown to 18 members last year and this year has 26 members and is still growing. The members heard the project idea and were 100% for it. The project idea was then presented to the SLV Rotary Club and they also were willing to participate in supervising the Interact students with this community service project.
The Fire Chief then got to work. He prepared a Power Point presentation for the training of the Interact and Rotary members who would be involved. He secured supplies and the Water District provided the spray paint. All participating Rotarians completed at least the first level of the Rotary Youth Protection program.
Two supply kits were prepared and all potential participants went through the hydrant painting training with the emphasis on road safety and the wearing of proper safety equipment of gloves, masks and eye protection.
By the spring of last year, the project finally began. Three person crews of usually one Rotarian and two Interact members were given assignments of 10-12 hydrants in a specific area to clean and paint. Most teams go out for 2 hours on weekend mornings. Records are kept of the painting of the hydrants, and also information about missing caps, leaking hydrants or missing blue reflectors, which is all reported back to the Fire Chief.
The project continued though the summer and at the start of this school year, the SLVHS Interact club had grown to 26 members. The project is continuing and at this time, over half the hydrants have been painted. We are working the outer areas of the district in toward town. If any of you have driven on Hwy. 9 through Boulder Creek and thought it was a mountain road, you should see some of the places our hydrant painters have seen. Some of the single lane dirt roads can be quite challenging even for the mountain residents. The majority of the remaining hydrants is closer to town and will be much easier to complete.
This has been a wonderful project. The Rotarians love working with the Interact members and getting to know them. The Interact members have enjoyed getting to know Rotarians so much they initiated and planned a potluck dinner for Interact and Rotarian members this past fall, which was a huge success. The Interact members have had an opportunity to earn many community service hours and the painted hydrants have improved the visibility of the hydrants, which can save precious time in the event of a fire.