MICHIGAN CITY — An ordinance approved by the Michigan City Common Council and signed by Mayor Ron Meer has been denied from being implemented by the Indiana Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission.
The ordinance, which would require all new construction within the city to be equipped with carbon monoxide detectors, was greeted with resistance from the 11-member Commission, and was eventually denied.
City government and Fire Department officials are already working on a new ordinance to take back down to Indianapolis in hope it will be approved by the commission.
"It's a $20 device that will save lives," said Michigan City Fire Marshall Kyle Kazmierczak. "It allows firefighters the tools to get the job done. Why wouldn't you want to be on the proactive side of things instead of the reactive? It is very frustrating."
According to Kazmierczak, the Michigan City's potential Carbon Monoxide detector ordinance, which would require the installation of the detectors in all new construction within the city, will be rewritten and submitted to the Common Council. It will go through all three readings and, if passed, Kazmierczak will take the ordinance back down to Indianapolis in February of 2018 seeking the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission approval.
Kazmierczak emphasized his frustration with the entire process and the Commission itself, stating that out of the 11 members on the commission, only two of the members have backgrounds in fire prevention.
"That Commission is inept," he said. "My goodness, if you have 11 members, and nine of them on the building side, you're never going to get anything passed through. I just want some parity."
Kazmierczack asserted that, under the ordinance that was denied from being instated by the Commission, the homeowner would absorb the cost of the detectors, not the contractor.
"It's only new construction," he said. "And it goes to the homeowner, not the contractor."
Kazmierczack also added that both Porter and St. Joesph counties had county-wide ordinances regarding the matter, and both were met with resistance, and both were eventually denied by the Commission. He also added that the city of La Porte sent a lighter version of Michigan City's ordinance, which was approved around November of 2016.
"They (La Porte) attached theirs to their smoke detector ordinance," he said. "When La Porte got theirs approved, they (the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission) said they were going to come out with a template, before they were completely wiped out. See, this is how this politics game kind of went. So the Commission that approved La Porte's, none of those members are a part of that commission (now) because the building representatives were upset that these individuals passed that, because it was going against what they were trying to accomplish. God knows what they are trying to accomplish."