The city of Bonney Lake this week agreed to foot the cost of a fire hydrant  required as part of a small construction project at the Swiss Sportsmen’s Park.

In exchange for the installing the hydrant, the club agreed to relinquish six of 12 water connections it purchased in 1949 for an advance payment of $900.

City engineers estimated the cost of the hydrant and pipeline construction to be approximately $25,500. Each water connection is valued at $7,807.

Swiss Sportsmen’s Club is looking to build a 960-square-foot bathroom/shower facility on their property. Because of the construction, city code would have required the park to connect to the city sewer system as well as make improvements to the street, including curbs and sidewalks, but the city council in November passed a developer’s agreement labeling the building as a “public facility” and waiving those requirements, though all other city codes would remain in place, including fire codes.

As the park continued through the permitting process, it was discovered that city fire code would require the park to install a fire hydrant. The code creates four classification of buildings, each with their own requirements for fire flow and hydrant proximity: Single- and two-family residential, multi-family residential, commercial and industrial.

Once the structure was classified “commercial,” city code dictates a hydrant within 300 feet of the structure. The club balked at the notion due to the cost involved.

Questions also arose due to a letter dated “1949” in which then-Mayor Kenneth Simmons promises in a post-script to provide the club with one.

According to the city, however, a check of the minutes of council meetings from the era show the city agreed to provide water connections, but there is no mention of a hydrant from the minutes or in the agreement eventually signed with Swiss.

The club insisted through the process that because of the letter, the city should pay for the hydrant.

City administrator Don Morrison called the deal a “compromise of sorts” and said the city should recoup the money over the long run.

“It’s a mutually acceptable means of resolving the difference in opinion,” Morrison said of the agreement, calling it “practical.”

“Swiss Park still believes the city owes them a fire hydrant in the first place,” he said.

A call to Swiss Park was not returned by press time.

The city council unanimously passed the agreement.