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Officials question decision to waive sprinklers
http://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/article_4e195444-d921-5a95-83a9-cee7d5782bfc.html
Jessica Stewart | St. Joseph News-Press
A former city building official made a decision to waive a sprinkler system in The Big Biscuit, located at 139 N. Belt Highway. The restaurant has made other safety accommodations.
Saturday, November 8, 2014 6:00 am
By Jessica Shumaker St. Joseph News-Press | 2 comments
Some city officials are questioning the decision a former city building official made to waive a sprinkler system at a new local business.
Andre Messner, the city’s new chief building official, said when he first noticed that The Big Biscuit, located at 139 N. Belt Highway, did not have a sprinkler system, he thought it was an oversight by the city and that an architect did not include them in the plans.
What he found was that the former CBO, Austin Rice, had received a request by an architect to waive the code requirement outlined in the International Existing Building Code and approved it, and the decision had not been communicated with others in the department.
“No one in the building department had found out about it until all the renovations (were complete),” Mr. Messner said. “I came into the job and found that he waived it. I personally disagree with his interpretation (of the code), but according to the code the city had adopted, he had the right (to make the decision).”
Mr. Messner said had others known about the decision, it could have been sent to the board of appeals. Appeals must be filed within five days of a decision and the board also has that amount of time to meet and make a ruling on an appeal.
Mr. Messner said requiring the addition of sprinklers could cost the business an estimated additional $24,000. Although Mr. Messner and fire department officials supported a plan to give the business a year to install a system, the city ultimately chose to stand by Mr. Rice’s decision.
“It seems a pretty tough pill for a customer to take,” he said, to nearly be ready to open and to find that a decision was reversed. “... That’s not good for business relations or confidence (in the) building department to come back after the fact.”
Mr. Messner and St. Joseph Fire Chief Mike Dalsing pointed out that the business has undergone renovations to improve its safety — it now has electronic monitoring of the smoke detector and duct systems and there are now hood systems in place for fire suppression.
“It’s much ... safer than it was, but we didn’t get everything we could have,” he said.
Mr. Dalsing agreed with Mr. Messner in that fairness played a role in coming to that decision. Still, he said it’s not something he’d like to see continue.
“By no means are we happy that we weren’t able to have them put sprinkler systems in, but it does come down to an issue of fairness,” he said.
Mr. Messner said the department is transitioning to using a computerized system for permits. Employees are being directed to match physical copies of permit documents to the computerized version to ensure information matches.
The computer system is also being updated to alert fire officials to updates that involve them.
Jessica Shumaker can be reached
at jessica.shumaker@newspressnow.com.
http://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/article_4e195444-d921-5a95-83a9-cee7d5782bfc.html
Jessica Stewart | St. Joseph News-Press
A former city building official made a decision to waive a sprinkler system in The Big Biscuit, located at 139 N. Belt Highway. The restaurant has made other safety accommodations.
Saturday, November 8, 2014 6:00 am
By Jessica Shumaker St. Joseph News-Press | 2 comments
Some city officials are questioning the decision a former city building official made to waive a sprinkler system at a new local business.
Andre Messner, the city’s new chief building official, said when he first noticed that The Big Biscuit, located at 139 N. Belt Highway, did not have a sprinkler system, he thought it was an oversight by the city and that an architect did not include them in the plans.
What he found was that the former CBO, Austin Rice, had received a request by an architect to waive the code requirement outlined in the International Existing Building Code and approved it, and the decision had not been communicated with others in the department.
“No one in the building department had found out about it until all the renovations (were complete),” Mr. Messner said. “I came into the job and found that he waived it. I personally disagree with his interpretation (of the code), but according to the code the city had adopted, he had the right (to make the decision).”
Mr. Messner said had others known about the decision, it could have been sent to the board of appeals. Appeals must be filed within five days of a decision and the board also has that amount of time to meet and make a ruling on an appeal.
Mr. Messner said requiring the addition of sprinklers could cost the business an estimated additional $24,000. Although Mr. Messner and fire department officials supported a plan to give the business a year to install a system, the city ultimately chose to stand by Mr. Rice’s decision.
“It seems a pretty tough pill for a customer to take,” he said, to nearly be ready to open and to find that a decision was reversed. “... That’s not good for business relations or confidence (in the) building department to come back after the fact.”
Mr. Messner and St. Joseph Fire Chief Mike Dalsing pointed out that the business has undergone renovations to improve its safety — it now has electronic monitoring of the smoke detector and duct systems and there are now hood systems in place for fire suppression.
“It’s much ... safer than it was, but we didn’t get everything we could have,” he said.
Mr. Dalsing agreed with Mr. Messner in that fairness played a role in coming to that decision. Still, he said it’s not something he’d like to see continue.
“By no means are we happy that we weren’t able to have them put sprinkler systems in, but it does come down to an issue of fairness,” he said.
Mr. Messner said the department is transitioning to using a computerized system for permits. Employees are being directed to match physical copies of permit documents to the computerized version to ensure information matches.
The computer system is also being updated to alert fire officials to updates that involve them.
Jessica Shumaker can be reached
at jessica.shumaker@newspressnow.com.
