After tabling earlier this summer an ordinance amending the city's fire code -- to adopt the state's updated 2012 version of the code -- aldermen brought the ordinance back to life at the council's regular meeting Monday night.
The new ordinance was read for its first of three readings, and Alderwoman Becky Morgan had three issues with the code, starting with a problem with the 6-inch requirement for house numbers.
Morgan does not feel it is right to require residents to retrofit their homes with larger numbers if they don't already have that size, for the sake of financial hardship.
Staff attorney Jason Kelley said the 6-inch requirement, however, is already law in the city by way of the previous version of the state's fire code and is required for all new construction. Allowing by city code the numbers to be smaller than 6 inches would be less restrictive than the state's fire code, and Planning Director Chris Suneson said that is not allowed.
Morgan also had issue with requiring a permit for constructing a fence of any height, and asked for a definition of "fence." Suneson said a fence is defined as "a barrier constructed to provide privacy or visual separation between one ownership and another."
Alderman Larry Wilson said that part of the code conflicts with rules set by the Architectural Control Committee, to which Mayor Frank Anderson said the city has nothing to do with.
Morgan was also concerned with the section of code that requires fire suppression in building expansions, particularly churches.
According to the code, if an expansion project is added to an existing building of 12,000-square-feet or more, or the expansion project creates a building of that total size, both the new and existing structure must be protected by a sprinkler system, or an approved firewall shall be installed between the old and new construction, and the new portion must be sprinkled.
Morgan said she is concerned with putting churches in financial hardship. Earlier in the meeting, John Lear of the Bella Vista Lutheran Church addressed the council to say that the rules in the code are "good for almost any building but a church," saying it's expensive to conform to the code.
Lear represents the Lutheran church in its ongoing expansion process.
Alderman Jim Wozniak pointed out the council has been discussing this issue since January, and is "nit-picking the daylights out of it." Anderson urged aldermen to seek answers to these kinds of inquiries before the scheduled meeting if they had issues with what an ordinance entails.
"We can't talk in nebulous terms ... Let's not wait till the last minute; I work there (at City Hall) 40 hours a week," he said. "You are being paid to do this job. Let's do some of it on other time, not just here (at the meeting)."
The group will read the ordinance for a second time in August, after discussing it again at a work session set for Aug. 18.
The purchase of a brand new fire truck was approved unanimously by a 5-0 vote. Alderman Jerry Snow did not attend.
The city will purchase a Class A custom pumper fire truck from KME Manufacturing of Rogersville, Mo., in the amount of $392,974.
The price includes an $80,000 down payment, which is already included in the city's 2014 budget, Fire Chief Steve Sims said.
The truck will be replacing a 1986 GMC pumper that had engine failure earlier this year.
Anderson said plans for a fourth fire station are moving along, after having interviewed three architects earlier in the day.
The city has also entered into a contract with Crafton Tull, Anderson said, for the "general planning" of the land that was purchased for the construction of a Street Department facility off Arkansas 279, south of Rogers Road.
The site plan will place the facility on about eight of the 32-acres, and allow for highway-frontage acreage to be used in the future for something like soccer fields or an extension of the police department, or to be sold for other purposes, Anderson said.
In other business, aldermen voted to suspend the rules and hold all three readings of two ordinances granting franchises and imposing franchise fees to Leisure Hills Water Inc. and the Old Bella Vista Property Owners Association; and of an ordinance accepting and confirming rights-of-way at the Bella Vista Lutheran Church to further their expansion project.
Ordinances establishing a drug-free workplace and adopting zoning code amendments were read for the first time.
The group passed resolutions to support amendments to state law requiring a 30-day check in with local law enforcement for homeless registered sex offenders and eliminating temporary sign permit fees for nonprofit organizations. These organizations must still file for a permit with the city, however no fee will be required.
General News on 07/30/2014