And after a second revote today around 9:30am.............. A sharply divided House voted down Friday a bill that would have prohibited city and county governments from ordering installation of fire sprinklers in residential buildings with four or fewer living units. The chamber voted 60-62 against House Bill 2515, which was opposed by firefighter groups and local government officials. It was endorsed by mobile-home manufacturers, builders and Realtors. Debate boiled down to whether the added cost of installing a fire-suppression system in new homes would weaken recovery of industries involved in construction and housing. In addition, questions were raised about the Legislature overriding authority of local units of government. Rep. Scott Schwab, an Olathe Republican, resurrected the bill Thursday after the measure appeared to have been lost. He instigated a procedural maneuver to force the vote on Friday. He said economic concerns outweighed his interest in defending local control. "You don't want a city passing civil code that can jeopardize the economy of the entire state," Schwab said. The cities of Parsons and Olathe have approved ordinances requiring sprinkler systems to be installed in new three- and four-plexes. The incentive to broaden sprinkler rules is driven by use of more composite materials in buildings that shorten the burn time of a residential structure, said Ron Ewing, a representative of the Kansas State Firefighters Association.
A win for the good guys! Well.....Really a Huge Win for local government to keep home rule. As it appears this issue will be dead for the rest of this legislative session, there are many watchdogs out there making sure an amendment does not get added to a different moving bill in the House of Senate. -CGaut -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Drucker Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 5:36 PM To: [email protected] Subject: FW: Builders get revote on bill banning local sprinkler laws Builders get revote on bill banning local sprinkler laws BY DION LEFLER The Wichita Eagle TOPEKA - A day after losing on a tie vote, builders and their supporters in the state House of Representatives won a revote on a bill that would prohibit local governments from mandating fire sprinklers in homes and small apartment buildings. Firefighters, cities and counties appeared to have fought House Bill 2515 to a standstill Wednesday when it went down to defeat in a 59-59 tie. But today, Rep. Scott Schwab, R-Olathe, moved to reconsider the bill. On the revote, it passed 65-55. The bill would prohibit cities and counties from passing building codes that require fire sprinklers in residential buildings of four units or less. Schwab's call for reconsideration puts him at odds with the firefighters from his hometown of Olathe, who strongly opposed the bill. The decision also was at odds with his feeling about protecting local control, but lawmakers had to protect the state economy, he said. "You don't want a city passing civil code that can jeopardize the economy of the entire state," he said. "That is when the state has to come in and put in certain ceiling to protect the good of the entire state." Before Wednesday's vote, Olathe firefighters and a representative of the state Firefighters Association stood outside the House chamber handing legislators orange fliers urging them to reject HB 2515. Olathe and Parsons were mentioned in the debate as two cities that have already passed requirements for fire sprinklers in triplexes and quadplexes. Ron Ewing of the Firefighters Association said the trend is to require sprinklers in new construction because of increased use of lightweight and composite materials. Older wood-built homes could burn for about 20 minutes before they began to collapse. With new homes, that "burn time" shortens to five minutes because of the different materials used, he said. Proponents of the bill included the state associations for Realtors, builders and mobile-home manufacturers. They argued that requiring sprinklers would add thousands of dollars to the cost of new homes and slow their industries' recovery from the recession. In addition to the firefighters, opponents included associations of cities and counties that argued that sprinklers save lives and that a state law restricting their building codes would infringe on local home-rule powers. http://www.kansas.com/news/story/1188614.html John Drucker, CET Fire Protection Subcode Official Fire/Building/Electrical Inspector Fire Marshals Office Borough of Red Bank, NJ _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
