So You Want To Know Why? Part 4.

What little of a commercial sector we have must be cherished.

But somewhere around the first or second week that out interim City Administrator arrived and started the job, an issue came up.

Now I am not going to go through every legal issue I went through with the City Administrator here, as it is far too much for this blog so I am going to summarize it for you.

If you want to know the full legal details request it through public records at City Hall.

But the fact of the matter is our Chief was exercising powers that only belonged to the state.

You see the Chief was running around town ordering a business owner to install vehicle protection in front of a propane tank the business owner had paid a propane company to install.

But what the chief did not know is that that power only belongs to the State Fire Marshall.

And on top of that the party responsible to the state for a propane tank installation is not the business owner or a residential property owner, the responsible party to the State Fire Marshall is the propane tank installation business.

I also looked at our new Fire Hall’s propane tank and measured the spacing requirements and realized that it was not in compliance with the very same laws our Chief was trying to force this business owner to comply with.

I talked to the business owner and learned that the State Fire Marshall had already inspected the propane tank and he said he wished the vehicle protection which was installed was 2” higher but he would allow it. But then the State Fire Marshall and our Chief ended up in an argument.

The State Fire Marshall left without telling this business owner the propane tank needed to be 2” higher or that the barrier used did not meet fire code.

But then our Fire Chief red tagged the propane tank and harassed the business owner.

So emails between the City and I started flying.

Well we argued back and forth in these emails and I could tell our Chief was involved before long and it came down to the City Administrator saying I need to contact the State Fire Marshall.

To which I warned him that you may not want to do that but if you want to go ahead which he did.

Well during this time of arguing between the City and I, this business owner bowed down to the Chief and built vehicle protection which exceeded any code requirement.

Well the next thing I see is an email that the State Fire Marshall wanted to meet the City Administrator in private.

I asked to be a party to that meeting but that went nowhere.

The next thing I hear is that the State Fire Marshall again passed the propane tank installation again as the business owner built it to exceed code.

So this business owners cost to do business was raised because our very fire chief does not know where his powers start and where they stop.

When the responsible party to these costs should have been the installer as it is their licenses which can be lost should the installation fail an inspection done by the State Fire Marshall and not be corrected per the State Fire Marshalls orders.

But have any of you heard any of this mentioned in the Council meetings?

There has been one thing mentioned though.

Go back to the authorization of the bills in the last Council meeting.

Do you know what you will hear?

An authorization to pay a bill, to move a propane tank.

Seems our Chief may want to learn to clean his own house, before he goes around ordering others to clean theirs.

Cody