POSTING #129

Fighting City Hall

Converting a house to a bed and breakfast usually involves multiple contacts with the folks at city hall---about things like zoning changes, building permits, signs and parking.

We have found that the secret to getting what you want is to be patient, persistent and creative, and not to protest too much about decisions that seem illogical.

For example, at one bed and breakfast we wanted to put up a sign by the road. We were told that we would have to pay for a permit that would entitle us to pay for another permit that would allow our proposal to be considered. I won't try to explain why two permits were required.

You may be reading this Posting over breakfast and I don't want to upset your digestion.

We knuckled under, kept our muttering to ourselves, bought two permits, and eventually got permission for a sign.

But there was one fight with city hall that ended in a most remarkable---almost 'biblical'---fashion, that I would like to tell you about today. I won't be naming the municipality in order to protect a good Samaritan who came to our aid.

The issue was the installation of a new pipe from the water main at the road to our house.

Our plumber told us that the existing pipe was too small and too corroded to give the volume and pressure of water needed for the extra bathrooms and the 'souped-up' laundry room that we wanted.

Digging a trench, five feet deep, from the house to the road would require a backhoe machine and would cost about $1500 (five feet deep, so the pipe wouldn't freeze in the winter).

So far, so good.

Then, the plumber added that we better talk to City Hall about connecting the new line to the water main. There might be a charge, and there might not be---it would be better if we got the details from the horse's mouth.

The officials told us that there was a charge of $2000 to connect a new line to the water main.

Wow! We said---under our breath.

But---the official continued---if the city workers found that the existing connection was not copper but was instead galvanized steel, there would be no charge. The City had a policy of replacing, without charge, galvanized connections throughout the water system. Our connection would then be considered just a replacement of a galvanized connection, and there would be no charge for it.

Are you still with me?

I told Pat to keep her fingers crossed that the workers would find a galvanized connection.

The big day came, the backhoe arrived and we soon had a five feet deep trench to the road. The plumber and his crew connected the larger copper pipe to the meter in the basement and ran the pipe through the basement wall and out to the water main.

One of the city workers clambered out of the trench, with a big smile. Good news, he told us, the connection is not copper but it's not galvanized either.

It's lead!

Now we know today that lead anywhere in a water system is a really bad thing. The house was old and at the time the water line was installed, people weren't aware of the dangers of lead.

So, the worker, told us, there will obviously be no charge for the connection.

Pat and I did a little dance.

The worker asked if he could use our phone to call his boss, tell him the news, and get a crew out to turn off the water main so the connection could be made.

He wasn't smiling when he came back from the phone call. His boss had agreed that there would be no charge for the connection, given the lead. However, he had decided that a crew could not be dispatched to turn off the water main until sometime the following week. Everyone was busy at the moment.

The worker said he had explained that the backhoe was waiting to back-fill the trench, and if the connection could not be made right away, the machine would have to come back---an additional expense for us.

His boss had been adamant.

We asked the worker if there was anything we could do. Something was obviously going through his mind, and he replied that we should let him think about it.

He went back into the trench and we thought that he might be trying to figure out how to make a temporary connection. 

A few minutes later, an explosion of water erupted from the trench---a veritable Yellowstone Old Faithful Geyser that shot through the branches of an overhanging maple and flew into the sky.

The worker, soaked, scrambled out of the ditch.

He said, with a grin, that there had been an accident. A heavy wrench must have fallen on the lead connection and the soft metal had given way.

This is an emergency, he said, and asked if he could use the phone again to call his boss.

He came back to say that a crew was on its way!

It didn't take long for the crew to arrive but it is amazing how much water can flow from a broken water main connection in a very short time. The street, our driveway, our neighbour's driveway and of course the trench were all flooded. Traffic was blocked on the street for nearly half an hour. (You can see why I used the term 'biblical' earlier on.)

The water was finally turned off and the worker went back into the trench. Toiling in the muddy water he attached our new pipe to the water main, using a copper connection. We tried to keep a straight face as we thanked him for the 'accident'. He shrugged off our thanks.

I got the impression that he might have just won a battle in a continuing war with a difficult superior.

The backhoe operator filled in the trench and the plumber was ecstatic with the new water flow and pressure.

I said earlier that creativity is sometimes necessary in fighting city hall.

We found that sometimes that creativity can come from an unexpected source.

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See you on November 20th for Posting #130th with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting,  or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.

Note:

Have you read the latest Posting on The Icewine Guru blog? You can read "Are Canadian Politics Dull?" at http://theicewineguru.blogspot.com/