Question: At 9 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 29, I observed a Board of Water Supply truck near 3112 Kahako Place in Kailua. There were two people with the truck, one repainting a fire hydrant and the other sitting in the cab. Why does it take two people for such an assignment? Why was it being done on a Sunday when, presumably, labor rates are higher? Why is the BWS painting fire hydrants? Isn’t that responsibility better assigned to the Fire Department (not a firefighter) or city employee?
Answer: The employees were working their regular shifts doing their regular jobs, which include maintenance work on the city’s fire hydrants, said Board of Water Supply spokeswoman Tracy Burgo.
The board, not the Honolulu Fire Department or any other agency, is responsible for inspecting, testing, maintaining and repairing all municipal fire hydrants in Honolulu.
“Field Operations employees conduct routine maintenance on each of the BWS’ fire hydrants throughout Oahu, which now numbers a little more than 21,000,” said Burgo.
Regarding Sunday work, she said many employees in the Field Operations Division work 10-hour days, four days a week, either Sunday through Wednesday or Wednesday through Saturday.
“The employees maintaining the fire hydrant in Kailua on a Sunday were being paid regular, not premium, wages, as the work was being done on their regular workday,” Burgo said.
As to why two workers were there: The work is assigned to a crew of two because both are needed to do the required maintenance work, she said.
Maintenance of the hydrants involves a number of things, she added: checking to ensure they work properly, lubricating, flushing, pressure-testing, painting and touching up ID numbers so they can be easily identified by users.
“One of the employees can then input the data collected from these activities into a laptop computer, for eventual download into the BWS’ files, while the other completes the maintenance work,” Burgo said.
For more information about the BWS’ hydrants, see is.gd/AkIEaU.
SECURE ID DAY
Free shredding of sensitive documents, as well as disposal of certain electronic equipment and recycling of unused cellphones, will be offered on “BBB Secure Your ID Day” from
9 a.m. to noon Oct. 19 at three locations on Oahu: McKinley High School, 1039 S. King St. (enter from Pensacola Street); Castle High School, 45-386 Kaneohe Bay Drive (parking lot outside of Bright Theatre); and Access Information Management Oahu Destruction Center, 98-736 Moanalua Loop, Aiea.
You may bring up to two boxes or bags of documents, CDs and floppy disks to be destroyed by Access Information Management. Paper documents should be removed from binders, but staples and paper clips can be shredded.
Pacific Corporate Solutions will accept old laptops, CPUs and servers for “secure hard drive destruction,” while Verizon Wireless will accept unwanted cellphones, which will have all user content removed before being refurbished, reused or smelted down for metals and plastics.
BBB and First Hawaiian Bank staff also will be available to give advice and tips to protect against identity theft.
At last year’s Secure Your ID event, more than 21 tons of material was shredded “on the spot” for free, according to the BBB. For more information, go to www.hawaii.bbb.org/syid.
MAHALO
To the kind gentleman who gave us beautiful and fragrant ginger lei at the University of Hawaii Wahine volleyball game Sept. 14. We were all away from our seats when you brought those lovely gifts, but we so wanted to thank you for your generosity and warm aloha. God bless you! — The Four Aunties
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Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
