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Detection system procurement passed to incoming councilors |
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Friday, 14 December 2007 |
By WILLIAM LANEY
Managing Editor
If an infrared heat detection camera is to be purchased and a program is to become available, Wapakoneta’s incoming city councilors will have to push the issue, a Wapakoneta City Council committee chair says.
Utilities Committee Chair Terry Campbell, who is not seeking re-election to his 1st Ward Council seat, told the Wapakoneta Daily News he would likely meet with members of the next Utilities Committee to discuss the project.
“I am going to just turn it over to the yet-to-be named smembers of the Utilities Committee, and I will probably sit in on their first or second meeting and get them up to speed on it,” Campbell said. “I knew we didn’t have the personnel at any department to say these two people could help with any of the duties of running the equipment.
“I was trying to find a department that had the interest and the personnel available,” he said, “and I think the Engineering Department would have been the perfect one if they were going to hire a person to serve as the building code officer.”
Nearly two years ago, Utilities Committee member Rachel Barber investigated Oberlin’s program so a similar program could be offered in Wapakoneta to help residents lower their electric and heating bills since electric rates and natural gas rates increased.
Without a department from which to operate the program, two years of study resulted in the city failing to institute a business and home heating audit program.
Campbell said he approached Electric Department Superintendent Bill Lambert, who told Campbell he could not justify the man hours or the cost of the equipment.
The 1st Ward councilor said Lambert conducts infrared heat detection services for industrial clients of the city, but the city must contract the service to a private provider. Campbell believes the purchase of the equipment would have paid for itself in less than 10 years.
The most recent quote Campbell obtained on a infrared heat detection camera is $6,750. A machine to vacuum-pressurize a residence or building is approximately $2,500.
Campbell also approached Wapakoneta Fire Chief Kendall Krites about having firefighters handle the home energy audits between emergency runs.
Krites said his department’s personnel is too busy.
He noted rescue squad runs have tripled since his department absorbed the Emergency Management System, or rescue squad department.
He also noted their primary function “is emergency preparedness and responding to emergencies.”
Councilor-at-large Deb Zwez said city administrators are going to have to decide if the city is going to do it and then assign it to a department.
“It was never intended to be a burden on anyone’s department, and when we started this it was never intended to be a function of the fire department,” Zwez said. “I am all for conversation and talking to people to see if they have a need for it, but nobody is looking to take on extra work and I don’t think anybody in the city is sitting around with time on their hands to say, ‘I have the extra time that I can do it.’
“If this is ever going to move forward, somebody is going to have to sit down and say this is worthwhile and I think we can assign this here, to this department, to this person, and then we need to get them training,” she said, “then we move forward.”
Safety-Service Director Rex Katterheinrich said the city’s budget hampers assigning it to any department.
“We are running all of our departments on a very bare bones budget,” Katterheinrich said. “I don’t think anyone of the city’s department heads would say they have the people, or the manpower, available to do this.”
Campbell said he understood Katterheinrich’s dilemma.
“I understand Rex’s point that we are operating the city with a very lean budget and no one has the personnel to assign these extra responsibilities,” Campbell said. “But Deb and Rachel have the right idea of trying to institute this program.” |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 17 December 2007 )
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