GENTRY - Key boxes and whether they should be required was the main topic of discussion at the Monday night meeting of the Gentry City Council, with numerous citizens and business owners also weighing in on the matter.
A new ordinance requested by resolution at the Octobercouncil meeting which would have repealed the existing law requiring all businesses within the city to have approved key boxes in place by May 1, 2011, was presented to the council, but objections to it wereraised almost immediately from council member Janie Parks and from business owners attending the meeting.
The requested ordinance would have required key boxes on all newly constructed commercial buildings and on commercial buildings where renovation costs were 25 percent or more of the cost to rebuild the structure. It would also have required key boxes on all commercial buildings with sprinkler systems or having fire alarm systems. The proposed ordinance would have dropped the requirement in current law for existing business structures unless the city’s fire marshal required it under state law.
“I voted against this last month for two reasons,” Parks said, “sections 1 and 2. Section2 is pretty arbitrary. There are too many different types of buildings ... We shouldn’t put Vester in that situation (where he has to determine whether the cost of renovation is equal to or greater than 25 percent of the estimated cost of newly constructing the property.)
“We would be the only town that I know of to require this,” Parks continued. “Every other town makes (key boxes) a suggestion.”
“It’s an invasion of privacy. That’s what it is,” said Gentry business owner Jack Elder, adding that the requirement would keep new businesses from coming to Gentry.
“Why not let the people decide?” said Gentry business owner Dean Shafer. “Itruns against my grain to have this shoved down my throat.”
“It may be a great idea. If it were shown to me and explained, I might have wanted it,” said Gentry business owner Marsha Bland, “butthis takes away my freedom.”
Councilmen Kevin Johnston and Michael Crawford, also members of the Gentry Fire Department, opposed weakening the law any more than the ordinance brought before the council for consideration and voted against repealing the current law.
Both said they wouldn’t be able to sleep if their vote to weaken the law caused a fellow firefighter to be hurt or die in a fire because there was no key box to make it possible for quick entry and fire suppression before a building became unsafe.
At the Oct. 4 meeting, Gentry Fire Chief Vester Cripps said he liked the original ordinance as it was and helped draft the 2006 ordinance.
“I like the ordinance as it is,” Cripps said. “It’s a little stricter than the state requirement but easier to implement now than when we have twice as many businesses. I can live with dropping the key box requirement for existing structures,” he said but explainedthat he really thought it best to require all commercial structures to have the boxes.
In two motions made by Parks on Monday, the council voted to have city attorney Jay Williams bring back an ordinance repealing the current 2006 law and then requiring approved key boxes on all commercial buildings which are also equipped with sprinkler systems or fire alarm systems.
Council members James Furgason and Kevin Johnston voted against the second motion. Janice Arnold, Jason Barrett, Michael Crawford and Janie Parks voted in favor of the motion. Councilman Kyle Jordan was not present.
Barrett suggested the matter also be referred to the city’s fire committee and to the safety committee before the December meeting. Crawford said he was voting for the second motion because it was “better than nothing.”
The importance of having key boxes on structures with fire alarms or sprinkler systems is related to the need to investigate the alarms when they come in rather than waiting for the owner to arrive or the fire to become visible from outside the structure. Waiting can also make it more dangerous for the firefighters who enter the buildings if a fire has burned under a floor or inside a wall or ceiling.
The key boxes make it possible for the fire department to investigate alarms without breaking down doors or breaking out windows, and they make it possible for the fire department to enter immediately and prevent greater damage if there is a fire or a sprinkler system has been activated.
With the matter to be brought back again next month, it’s likely the positives and negatives of the ordinance proposals will again be a topic for discussion.
News, Pages 5 on 11/03/2010