Morton Grove purchases 30 fire hydrants, updates infrastructure dating to 1928
Morton Grove officials last week approved a purchase of 30 new fire hydrants from Mid-American Water of Wauconda, Illinois in a contract extension worth $80,040.
Morton Grove has 1,170 fire hydrants throughout the village, according to the legislative summary presented to trustees at the Jan. 10 board meeting.
Some of those hydrants were originally installed in 1928, the legislative summary states, and “over the last eight years, availability and cost of parts has made it harder to repair older hydrants.”
Trustee John Thill, who presented the ordinance to the board for approval, said that while Public Works replacements like fire hydrant updates were a major use of taxpayer dollars, some residents might not know where their tax money is going.
“There’s some people that wonder what we as a village do, but the money that we pay goes into the ground for infrastructure,” he said.
The ordinance trustees approved last week extends a contract the village originally approved in 2021 that authorized the purchase of 50 new hydrants at $2,668 each, according to the legislative summary.
That price will stand for this year’s purchase of 30 new hydrants, the memo states.
Trustees approved the purchase 6-0. The money for the purchase will come out of the Public Works Water Enterprise Fund and the hydrants will be installed by Morton Grove’s Department of Public Works, the memo states.
