In his weekly news conference yesterday, Mayor Ric Abel said he will urge City Council to look at current legislation regarding fees charged for false fire alarms in the city.
Last year, the Athens Fire Department received 810 calls, many of which were false alarms, Abel said. As of this month, the department has received 650 calls this year, he said. About 50 percent of the calls in 2006 came from Ohio University buildings. According to a Feb. 15 Post article, owners or operators of a premise will be charged a $50 fee for each false alarm to which a safety department responds. But because OU is a public entity, it is not required to pay these fines under state law.
Abel said that he wants Council to review how the fines are issued to treat Athens residents and businesses fairly. He hopes to present the issue to Council within the next 30 days.
Although he did not know an exact figure, Abel said that the amount owed by the university was in the thousands. He also said that OU is not the only entity that has a delinquent bill.
OU was asked to pay between $6,000 and $8,000 to the city, said Sally Linder, university spokeswoman. And while the university will not pay this amount, it will be working with the city to correct the problem.
We are looking forward to partnering with the city to get to the root of the problem and find solutions for why these false alarms keep occurring
Linder said.
The investigation into the fire systems was spurred by an increase in the number of calls the fire department has received ' about 60 percent in the last 10 years. Abel was not sure why this number has risen, as there has not been a significant amount of growth in the city in this time period.
However, Abel stressed that even though the numbers for false alarms are on the high side, it should not scare people away from calling if they think there is an emergency.
Everyone wants to err on the side of caution because we're talking lives with fires he said, adding that he encourages citizens to call if they are unsure if there is an emergency.
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