Denton Record Chronicle
07:22 AM CDT on Monday, May 22, 2006
By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe / Staff Writer

Although for the short term, property owners in the Mustang Special Utility District won’t see relief on their property insurance rates, the city manager in Oak Point says the long view is much more troublesome.

That’s because Texas requires neither public nor private water supply companies to provide water flow at a rate sufficient to fight fires.

“There’s no motivation to do it. Even though people depend on my city to provide fire service, we’re dependent on the water supply,” said Julie Johnston, city manager of Oak Point, which is part of the utility district. “I’ve not seen the money on the table or a capital improvement plan to ensure the water lines are adequate.”

Three water supply companies serve Oak Point, including the privately owned Midway and Terra Southwest water companies and the public Mustang Special Utility District, which provides water to most Oak Point customers.

Property owners in rural fire districts first took a hit on their insurance rates in 1998 when Texas adopted new standards. Texas was the last state to link its property insurance rates to independent criteria evaluated by the nationwide Insurance Services Organization. That organization rates a fire district by crunching numbers in three areas: 50 percent on the fire department’s training, equipment and response capabilities, 10 percent on the area’s emergency communications and 40 percent on its water system.

Over the past few years, the Oak Point Fire Department has acquired equipment that can fight fires with little water and has trained officers on being able to maximize water flow without collapsing a line.

“The current water lines are insufficient for fire flow,” Johnston said.

The Mustang Special Utility District can’t guarantee flow rates sufficient for firefighting in its water lines, according to M.L. “Sonny” Snow, president of the water district.

Moreover, one Oak Point subdivision is built out, but without any fire hydrants.

“At the present time we’re working to get them more plugs [fire hydrants] as best we can,” Snow said, adding that the utility district is also working diligently to get the tanks, wells and towers that will increase water flow. “But we have a big area we have to serve.”

He thought the district would have the issue worked out by the end of the year.

An Insurance Services Organization audit and re-rate is a time-consuming and expensive process, but the aggregate savings for property owners in a re-rated district can reach the millions of dollars. In addition, property owners benefit from better fire-suppression capabilities. Homeowners in many other area cities have already realized savings, or will see savings beginning June 1.

Because Oak Point had already invested in its fire department and the re-rate process also required timeliness, Johnston said the city agreed to pay Mustang about $3,000 for one of the utility district’s engineers to work on the paperwork after Oak Point waited more than six months for a response.

However, for the long haul, Johnston remains concerned about the area. Oak Point voted that hay bales need to be moved away from the road after someone driving down FM720 tossed a cigarette out a window, touching off a stubborn blaze where the bales were being stored.

“After last summer’s grassfires … I’m very concerned about what would happen,” Johnston said, particularly of the homes that are extremely close together along U.S. Highway 380.

Currently, many subdivisions in those areas are ISO-rated 10, the highest rating for fire risk.

“It’s a scary thought. They [the houses] are so close together that I can stand between them and touch both,” Johnston said. “I’m not sure anyone really sees the [fire] concerns. People aren’t looking for the long run.”