Picture This!

After the horrific and devastating fires in the greater Los Angeles area last month, the last thing most people want to see on social media is fire hydrants that are out of service in their own neighborhood.

On January 20th, Golden Valley resident Debbie Gilbert posted, to a Facebook group for residents of the Shipps Estates subdivision, ”I want you to know that 7 out of 20 Fire Hydrants are inoperable” and asked “Who issued building permits without a working fire hydrant?”

In response, resident Hallie Osborn Jolitz posted a response on January 27th from Mohave County Improvement Districts Operations Manager Kelly Stickrath that said “The Water System Supervisor confirmed they are aware of the situation and are working with a contractor to address the hydrants. However, there is not a specific timeline as of yet on when the hydrants will be operational.”

The Mohave Free Press reached out to local Golden Valley Fire District Board Member Butch Meriwether, as well as Fire Chief Dave Cunningham, in order to get to the bottom of this situation.

Meriwether responded that the Golden Valley Improvement District (GVID) is the responsible party, and that the contractor was contacted by the County 3 months ago but has not answered. Meriwether stated that there are a total of 156 fire hydrants in GVID and 8 were inoperable.

Assistant Fire Chief Dave Martin responded to our email inquiry regarding the fire hydrants in Shipps Estates. Martin wrote, “Yes the hydrants in question are out of service. My last count were 6. I have been working with the Golden Valley Improvement District Water Company to get them fixed. The brass outlet were stolen some years ago before they started finish building the housing track.”

So to address Debbie's question, Mohave County apparently issued occupancy permits for the subdivision without all fire hydrants being operational, and it’s been unresolved for years now.

Equally disturbing is that County staff have never once brought this to the attention of the Board of Supervisors, who also sit as the Board of GVID, even despite a “GVID Town Hall Meeting” being held in September of 2023 where a public presentation was given on the status of the District.

Fortunately for Shipps Estates residents, District 5 Supervisor Ron Gould has offered to see what he can do to get the situation remedied as quickly as possible.

In a frightening turn of events, there was just a structure fire less than a mile south of of the subdivision.

It just goes to show that even a simple social media post can start the ball rolling on resolving a problem that has existed for years.