KILLEEN, Texas — In May 2019, a 6 News investigation revealed the city of Killeen had not inspected its fire hydrants for years. 6 News began the investigation after a fire destroyed the home of Tanisha Hill on Dec. 2, 2018, and the hydrant three houses down failed first responders.
After the story aired, Killeen spokesperson Hilary Shine said the city had restarted the maintenance program in late April. However, it still lacked the funding some city officials had already been asking for.
An email sent in December from Steve Kana, director of water and sewer, to Shine said the water department had been lacking funding for years.
"Every budget cycle for at least the last six, I have asked for a two-man crew and equipment to inspect/main the 4,665 FHs and 9,950 valves in the water system," Kana wrote. "Each year this request has been denied."
According to the city, the current staffing of the program has inspected 286 hydrants in just over three months.
The city of Killeen has 4,665 hydrants according to Kana's email, meaning the water department has only been able to check just over 6%. The city has already repaired or replaced 19 hydrants in 2019.
Mayor Jose Segarra and several council members told 6 News in March they didn't know the funding had been asked for in previous budgets, but the 2019-2020 budget will be a different story.
"Once we find out what the projected number of fire hydrants we have are, or we will have soon, we can look at our budget and decide what needs to be done with the budget to help us get as many fire hydrants as possible inspected within a year's time," councilman Steve Harris said. "We can't go too long without fire hydrants being inspected...that's public safety."
"We don't want it to develop into a problem," Councilwoman Fleming said. "Maybe all of them work; who knows? But unless we check them out, we will never know."
Councilman Jim Kilpatrick also told 6 News fire hydrant safety will be one of his top priorities this budget cycle.
Council members will be meeting with the city manager to go over the budget this week and it will be unveiled to the public Tuesday, Aug. 6 as the city council begins discussions.
It appears, this year, hydrants will be included.
"I will bring it up in the meeting and see how far it goes and what direction, what decision will be made as far as getting more employees and more people organized to do this," Fleming said.
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