Fire chief: ‘Plan does not meet code’
By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Village Council approved a revised permit application for this year’s Lions Club Jubilee in a 4-2 vote on Monday.
The altered plan, however, does not meet the Orion Township Fire Department’s safety codes and Fire Marshal Jeff Williams and Fire Chief Ryan Allen did not approve of the event plan.
The council’s approval was made with the following conditions: for the Lions Club to increase insurance coverage to $5 million, name the village as additional insured on the policy and sign a hold-harmless agreement with the village. The Lions Club Jubilee is scheduled for June 19-22.
The council’s agenda packet includes a map now showing the Jubilee located one block east of the original plan, now along East Flint Street and Anderson Street. Rides, games and other attractions are still located in the streets and in parking lots.
Council Members George Dandalides and Michael Lamb voted against approving the event due to continued public safety concerns and a lack of approval from the fire department.
“I would hope that after the fourth year in a row (without fire department approval) that the Lions Club might seriously consider taking the offer that the village made to let you use Atwater Park (or) use the entire DPW yard and make whatever other arrangements you need to have a successful and safe event that everyone agrees with,” Lamb said.
Later in the meeting, Lamb added “it just takes one time for somebody to die.”
Council Member Carl Cyrowski said the event has continued for “many, many” years without incident, adding the additional insurance and hold-harmless agreement is “all we need.”
Dandalides said the fire department told the village there are still issues with the revised plan, which is why “in due diligence, I can’t support going forward with a plan that doesn’t have the acceptance and the support of our fire department.”
Dandalides also said he does not think insurance is the answer to mitigate any risk. Instead, he said the village needs to act in a safe and responsible manner “as our fire department is advising us.”
Village Manager Darwin McClary said he, the public works director and chief of police met with Allen and Williams last week to discuss concerns with the original plan, but when Village Council President Teresa Rutt asked Allen if moving the Jubilee mitigates major risks, he said “you’ve been provided a plan that the fire department has not had an opportunity to review at all.”
Rutt later thanked those who put work into this year’s Jubilee and said she knows May 12 “is not the ideal time to be having these discussions.” She added the date on the Lions Club’s application was Dec. 23, which then took time to be processed. Rutt then encouraged the Lions to turn the application in earlier in the future and for village administration to “start moving on it” so that the council can discuss the event “much earlier than May.”
“I don’t like to move risk from one area to another,” Allen said. “So, it’s like asking me to pick the room on the right or the room on the left and say ‘which one do I not want to go?’ We’re not going to make a decision to say that I’m willing to write off one building or a different building. The plan does not meet code and that’s where we stand with it.”
The plan does not leave a travel path to maneuver fire engines, or for the department to access a building in a 360-degree radius, Allen said. While there are less buildings at risk in the new plan, the buildings now at a higher risk may have a higher value.
Lake Orion United Methodist Church, which is now affected by the new layout, may be more difficult to defend from a fire. This coupled with the possibility of service being in session during an emergency could create a situation where a high-occupancy building is more difficult to defend due to Jubilee structures being nearby, according to Allen.
Even with the concerns, one Lions Club member, Roger Brodeur, who spoke during the council meeting called this year’s design the safest there has ever been in his time working on the event, adding the fire department has more access to anything than they ever had in the past.
“We do plan to keep everything inside of parking spaces,” Brodeur said. “Which then, in that case, we could open up any roadway by simply moving a barricade.”
Brodeur also said the barricades used this year may be “trickier” to deal with due to the police exchanging barricade styles before adding the police assured the club they could move them at a moment’s notice.
“All I got to say is ‘go Lions,’ let’s have a good time,” Council Member Alex Comparoni said.