Council to consider $197,433 contract to test and repaint the last 60% of city fire hydrants

Denison is set to finish a three-year job of checking every fire hydrant the city owns.

The City Council on Monday, Oct. 5, will consider a contract with HydroMax USA to inspect, flow-test, repaint and make small repairs on roughly 1,216 hydrants, at a cost not to exceed $197,433.56.

The item is on the consent agenda for the 6 p.m. meeting at City Hall, 300 W. Main St., meaning it can be approved in a single vote with other routine items unless a council member pulls it for discussion.

Why the city is doing it

The city owns and maintains about 1,879 hydrants, according to a staff report from Fanchon Stearns, assistant director of public works for capital projects and engineering. To keep what the report calls the city's ISO 1 rating, Denison follows the NFPA 291 standard, which calls for every city hydrant to be tested within a five-year span.

Staff recommends handling about a fifth of the inventory each year to keep the work manageable.

HydroMax handled the first two phases in 2025 and 2026, covering about 40% of the system. The first round focused on older parts of the water system, and the second on areas around schools and neighborhoods. This contract covers the remaining 60%, which would put every hydrant in the system inside the required window.

What crews will check

Each hydrant gets a visual inspection for obstructions that could block access, cracked or missing caps, damaged or leaking nozzles, gaskets and valves, the correct height above ground, and leaks from the main valve. Crews will flow-test every hydrant and coat it in industrial paint whose color follows the NFPA flow-testing chart, so firefighters can read a hydrant's capacity at a glance.

Smaller fixes, such as gasket replacement and lubrication, are part of the work.

The contractor will also record the GPS location of each hydrant and its lead valve and hand the city a GIS file, which staff says will sharpen the accuracy of the city's water utility and hydrant maps.

The money comes from the utility capital improvement fund, Fund 022. Staff recommends approval.

Elsewhere on the consent agenda, the council will consider reappointing Charles Pool to a three-year term on the Denison Development Alliance board and naming him board chair for one year.

Sources

denisontx.api.civicclerk.com