HomeMy WebLinkAboutBuilding Review Board - Minutes - 11/29/1988r
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MEMBERS PRESENT:
MEMBERS ABSENT:
STAFF PRESENT:
BUILDING REVIEW BOARD
Minutes
November 29, 1988
Tom Hartmann
Doug Johnson
Ron Baker
Dick Conard
Chris Allison
Dennis Sinnett
Raju Jairam
Harry Cornell
Bill McCaffrey
Felix Lee
Debbie Zeigler
Paul Eckman
The minutes of the October 29th meeting were unanimously approved.
Michael Blank, W. W. Reynolds Company, was approved for a Class B
license/certificate.
Mark Goldrich applied to the Board in June 1988. He was approved for
the Class C-01 test but was asked to provide five Class C-01 references
before the Board would approve issuance of the license. In July, Mark
passed the Class C-01 test with a 95%. At this time Mr. Goldrich was
asking the Board to approve him for a Class D license/certificate based
on the references he provided in his original application. Boardmember
Johnson made a motion to approve Mr. Goldrich for a Class D license
/certificate. The motion was seconded by Boardmember Conard. The
motion carried.
Warren Jones, Fire Marshall with Poudre Fire Authority, presented the
case on Mr. Robert A. Boyes, Ameritech Fire Sprinkler. The situation
involves a fire sprinkler installation by said contractor that was done
at the Sears store in the Foothills Fashion Mall. After the job was
finished, according to City of Fort Collins codes, Sears decided addi—
tional sprinkler heads were needed and hired a different fire sprinkler
contractor to add the heads. This particular contractor pulled the
ceiling tiles to see where he could tie the other sprinkler heads and in
this process found "dummy" heads and notified Poudre Fire Authority.
Upon investigation they found three sprinkler heads were attached to the
ceiling panels and not connected to the water supply. This is regarded
as a serious issue, Mr. Jones stated. Poudre Fire Authority conducted
several interviews with Mr. Boyes, the contractor who obtained the
building permit and who Poudre Fire Authority believes did the work.
Poudre Fire Authority Investigator Dave Sawyer, present at the hearing,
interviewed Mr. Boyes on at least one occasion. Statements were taken
from employees of Sears and the general contractor involved on the job
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Building Review Board
November 29, 1988
Page 2
and it was concluded that Mr. Boyes installed the "dummy" heads. How-
ever, Mr. Boyes denies he did this work. He did offer to turn his
license into Poudre Fire Authority. At that time, Mr. Jones communi-
cated with Felix Lee and recommended suspension of his license based on
the fact that lives and property were endangered.
Boardmember Johnson asked if the work could have been done in prior
construction. Mr. Jones said the investigation shows the work was done
at the same time Mr. Boyes did some other changes or immediately there-
after.
Mr. Jones introduced Joe Jaramillo, who is a sprinkler technician with
Poudre Fire Authority, and said the Board should ask any question of him
that would clarify the situation. Boardmember Baker asked if the scope
of the remodeling was a fairly large area. Mr. Jaramillo said new
walls were added in a remodeling project that involved a large area of
the store. The heads were found in the remodeled area of the store with
new walls and racks. The old area was sprinkled twelve feet between
sprinklers and when the walls were taken out the spacing of the sprink-
lers was off to accommodate the new construction.
Boardmember Conard asked if the fire department had ever run into this
before. Mr. Jaramillo said they found it one other time in Foothills
Fashion Mall where the store owner had done it to save money.
Boardmember Hartmann asked if Mr. Jaramillo felt the sprinkler heads not
being connected could have been intentional or could have been merely
overlooked. He responded that with the amount of experience Mr. Boyes
had, it had to be intentional.
Mr. Jaramillo said after the rough -in work is done and before the ceil-
ing tiles are in, the Poudre Fire Authority is called for an inspection.
The fire department checks the size of pipe and hangars are used, but in
this case Mr. Boyes never called for an inspection. Two weeks later
when Poudre Fire Authority went back the job was finished and Mr. Boyes
was gone. In a small tenant finish there is no test of the heads. In
larger areas a hydrostatic test is performed.
Felix Lee stated unconnected heads are an intentional means to circum-
vent the requirements and recommended revocation. He also wanted the
Board to know Mr. Boyes had received notification of this meeting via
certified mail.
Boardmember Conard said three sprinkler head were installed and inten-
tionally not hooked up. In the absence of any defense by Mr. Boyes,
demonstrated by the fact that he didn"t come to this meeting, Boardmem-
ber Conard made a motion to permanently revoke Robert A. Boyes, Ameri-
tech Fire Sprinkler's license. The motion was seconded by Boardmember
Allison. Motion carried unanimously.
Building Review Board
November 29, 1988
Page 3
Warren Jones told the Board about the underground fuel storage program
that is being started where the licensed contractors would be required
to test as part of the licensing requirements. He said he would get back
to the Board with an update when further information was available.
Felix Lee informed the Board about '88 code adoption process. Further
discussion on committees and processes will occur at the December 29th
meeting.
The meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Baker, Chairman
Felix L Staff Liaison
TO: City Clerk
FROM: Debbie Zeigler, Building Inspection /dal-z�
DATE: November 9, 1988
RE: Change in Building Review Board meeting date
The Building Review Board usually meets the last Thursday in each month.
Because of Thanksgiving, we have changed the date to November 29th, Tues-
day, 9:15 a.m. in the Council Chambers.
Call me at 6767 if there are any questions.