1.7.25 – Newsbreak— GREENWOOD
Two fire prevention ordinances in Greenwood have been tabled following holiday delays.
Greenwood City Councilman Rod Powell announced at the Monday meeting he will need to wait until February before introducing the ordinances. The ordinances, which aim to prevent fires in rental properties, come in response to last year’s deaths of two children and their mother.
The City Council voted unanimously to table the two items.
“I had a little trouble getting information back from other municipalities. I think it is understandable during the holidays,” Powell said.
Powell, who also works as a firefighter, said in November the first ordinance he would like to put forward would require commercial, tamper-proof fire detectors in all residential rental properties.
The reasoning behind the proposed ordinance, Powell said, is he heard from local landlords that people will remove fire detectors in their properties so they can smoke without it going off.
Powell said this ordinance would also tell officials how many short-term rentals are in the city.
The second ordinance Powell plans to introduce is one that would require buildings that are duplexes or larger to include a sprinkler system.
Powell said he and Fire Chief Stewart Bryan have been looking at doing something like this for two years. He said a similar ordinance was passed in Rogers, and he hoped to just copy and paste the same language into Greenwood’s ordinance.
“I am going to bring it to you, and I want you to take three months to consider it,” Powell said. “I think there will be people walking around here alive in 10 years that otherwise wouldn’t have.”
Another item that was delayed at the meeting was possible alterations to the city’s procedural rules that would change what day of the week City Council meetings are held.
Sharla Derry, city clerk and treasurer, suggested the council move the meeting day from the first Monday of the month to the first Thursday.
“At the department head meeting this morning, we all, from what I understood, unanimously agreed that we would love to give having our meetings on the first Thursday nights (a try),” Derry said. “There are reasons for it because you have a weekend and then bam! You have this meeting, there is no time make changes or bring additions.”
Council members seemed to be in favor of the change, but Councilman Steve Tedford said he would prefer waiting a month to double check that everyone would be able to make the meetings before going forward with the change. City officials also noted the procedural rules needed to be approved in January according to state law.
The City Council voted unanimously to approve the same procedural rules as last year, along with the first Monday meeting time, and said they would make changes at next month’s meeting if that is the direction they wanted to go.