07-27-98 Health & Public Safety - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

4Committtu Z pot t: Health and Public Safety Committee tb* Common CountiU of he City of foutb /Stub: The July 27, 1998 meeting of the Health and Public Safety Committee was called to order at 3:30 p.m.by Council Member Charlotte Pfeifer, Chairperson of the Committee. Persons in attendance included Council Members Aranowski, Pfeifer, Kelly, Broden, Varner, Coleman, and Hosinski; Chief Luther Taylor, Assistant Chief Bert Prawat, Bob Hunt,James Voll and Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand. Council Member Pfeifer noted that the first item on the agenda was to review Bill No. 55- 98 which would amend the South Bend Municipal Code addressing Fire Prevention. Fire Chief Taylor noted that Fire Chiefs throughout the State of Indiana have endorsed changing over to the 1998 edition of the Indiana Fire Code as proposed in the Bill. Assistant Chief Prawat noted that the proposed ordinance is basically a formality to comply with the new regulations. He noted in his 18-19 years in his position that the Board of Fire Appeals which the Bill would remove has never met. The Council Attorney suggested that the Bill be amended in § 9-2 to delete"two(2)" in line 7 and replace it with "three(3)", delete "and" at the end of line 9, and add " ", and the City Clerk's Office" right after the word "enforcement". She noted that as a member of the Special Codification Committee that her recommendation that regulations and codes incorporated by reference must be kept on file in the Office of the City Clerk. This recommendation has been confirmed by the codification consultants hired by the City of South Bend. Chief Taylor and Assistant Chief Prawat agreed to the proposed amendment. Following discussion, Council Member Kelly made a motion, seconded by Council Member Broden that Bill No. 55-98, as amended be recommended favorably to Council. The motion passed. Under Miscellaneous Business, Council Member Pfeifer asked Chief Taylor to comment on the recent Nancy Sulok article on the"two-in-two-out" policy which recently appeared in the *MO WO Zrthi.tn . Chief Taylor stated that the policy is going well in the Fire Department. He also noted that he recently attended a state conference and noted that the City of South Bend is far ahead of other communities regarding this policy. Training is continuing on this new policy. Chief Taylor noted that he does have concerns with regard to one area of the City which will be discussed during the upcoming budget hearings on the proposed 1999 Fire Department budget. The Council Attorney also noted that she met with Steve Weiger,President of the Firefighters Union last week and that he concurred that the policy is being implemented smoothly. In response to a question raised by Council Member Varner, Chief Taylor noted that the proposed fire station on York Road in the Fifth District should have a ground breaking ceremony the week of August 31st with the station opening in May of 1999.