Bella Vista City Council Takes No Action On Fire Code

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

— Amendments to fire code regulations were tabled by the City Council Monday night, after several members of a Bella Vista church expressed opposition to the changes.

Aldermen voted unanimously to table the ordinance updating the regulations.

A proposed and more restrictive amendment states that in instances of additional construction onto an existing building of 12,000 square feet or more, or where there will be an assembly of 300 or more people, a fire sprinkler system should be installed throughout the entire building, old and new.

Jim Neal, fire inspector, at a council work session Feb. 17 gave an example of a church in the city that was 5,000 square feet and then added an additional 14,000 square feet to the building. There isn’t a sprinkler system in the existing building. Now, the church wants to add another 9,000 square feet to the existing structure. Under the amendment, the church would be required to install a sprinkler system throughout the old and new building.

Wendell Pitt of Bella Vista Lutheran Church said his church is the one Neal used as an example, and the proposed amendments to the code are impractical and discriminatory against churches.

He said there is an existing firewall between the original church and the first addition, and the church has paid to place hydrants on its side of Forest Hills Boulevard for fire safety precautions.

John Lear, the church’s building chairman, said members of the church felt blindsided by this ordinance, and they had already discussed with Neal an agreement to avoid fire suppressing the entire building and to proceed with the expansion project.

Neal confirmed after the meeting that a verbal agreement was in place with the church concerning fire protection, and he still planned on honoring that agreement. He said he used that particular church’s situation as an example to explain the changes to the code to aldermen at the work session.

If the changes were approved, Lear said the addition of sprinklers would up the cost of expansion to $1.85 million and the church “can never do that.”

Pastor Paul Hass of the church said most of the structures in Bella Vista that accommodate large groups of people are churches, and these changes would stifle growth in the area.

The amendments will be discussed at the next council work session, which is set for March 17 at City Hall.

The group also approved the purchase of two single-axle dump trucks from Wichita Kenworth, in the amount of $117,429 each, not to exceed $235,000.

Alderman Jerry Snow motioned to table the resolution, saying the group did not have adequate discussion on the bids. Snow in May last year claimed the city did not allow for competitive bidding for the trucks. The resolution was then defeated with a tie vote and never reconsidered.

There was no second to his motion at Monday’s meeting, and the resolution passed 5-1, with Snow voting against it.