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Public Safety Minutes 1998 09-28-98 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE Committee Minutes—Public Safety Date of Meeting: September 28, 1998 Time Convened: 6-35 P.M. Location- 111 W_Fox Time Adjourned:9:00 P.M. Attendees Rose Spears Jeff Spang Valerie Burd Art Prochaska Larry Kot Tony Graff See Attached Residents that attended meeting Discussion: 1.) Open Burning Ordinance—Recreation Fire Guidelines—Several petitions were submitted by residents and entered into record. A quick overview, the City passed a burning ordinance. Ordinance allows burning of campfires. Committee is looking at this from a safety issue_ Graff has came up with some recommendations with assistance from Bill Delmer our Building Inspector. These recommendations are as follows. 1.) Recreational Campfires shall not be more then five feet by five feet in size(fire pit area.) 2.) Shall not burn longer then three hours. 3.) Shall be attended by a responsible adult. This adult shall have a means of extinguishment readily available,such as a garden hose,fire extinguisher, sand, or dirt. 4.) Material for burning shall consist only of seasoned, dry,firewood,and a small quantity of paper for ignition. Under no circumstances can household garbage be burned or accelerants used. 5.) No fire can be located closer than 15 feet from a structure. 6.) Enforcement is by the Yorkville Police Department and/or Building Department. Based upon the severity of conditions,each department can order the fire extinguished, issue a warning or a written citation. These procedures are under the direction of the Code Official. Any changes must be approved. One of the residents stood and presented the other side of the story. She feels that Nancy James' petition can not be construed as anything but her own. The ordinance now covers for hazardous burning. She feels that leaf burning should be considered two to three times per year. Graff met with the Building Inspector and recommends leaving the ordinance as is along with the above guidelines. Some of the officers have a hard time distinguishing a recreational fire. The above procedures should help guide the officers and are based on Boca Codes. This is not something new. Our Building Inspector feels that this is safe and acceptable. Graff agrees on a time limit of five hours. Maybe we should consider to a time limit as to a set time. The issue seems to be time limit. If we see that three hours are too restrictive then we can change it When the Police Department receives complaints, it is usually these issues, We are not recommending bon fires. A structure is considered a porch, house, garage, and fence or anything that has been built that can not be moved. Graff recommends a watch period of 90 days or so. If the Police are called to a fire and they are not within our standards then we will give out warnings and then citations. There have only been a few unsafe recreational fires within the past year where the Officer has aked the fire to be extinguished. A recreational fire will not need any accelerants to light. Graff understands both sides of the issue. Some people burn daily. When Officers are called out and check the bum pit, occasionally people do have things that should not be burned and they are told that. We are not looking to pass anything. We could adopt as a policy if we feel we need to. This is Staffs response to the issue_ We need to allow common sense to be used. We do respond to smoke. Debra Moody stated that we are all here to define safety. But with the three hour time restraints she feels that she is under-the gun to relax on the City's time clock. She does not want to have her - 1 - ZOO XV3 LZ:TZ 86/50/01 recreational time to be limited. If it is not a safety issue then is it a nuisance? If it is not a nuisance then why the time limit? If you are burning dry wood and not wet smoky wood thcn it should not be a problem_ The Police have been to their house three times. Two of those times there was not a fire and the one time there was a fire but there was no smoke coming off the fire. They have a bum pit. A nuisance to one person it not a nuisance to another. Nuisance is a very vague term. Bill Dawson stated that he helped get a few petitions around. He is for leaving the ordinance as is. None of his neighbors seem to mind his fires. He does not have a burn pit_ Dawson feels it all comes down to respect. He does not want his rights taken away. He feels that as long as everybody exercises common sense it should be ok. Never in 25 years has he complained about his neighbors. He does not burn his brush. Once a month he hauls it to the street. He would not recommend to many restrictions. He feels it comes down to common sense and respect. Another resident stated that she has a problem with the 15 feet. She feels that it should be stated as a safe distance and the Officers will know what a safe distance is. She has a problem with the time limit also. If we are talking about safety then it should not matter if the fire bums all day as long as it is attended. Another resident stated she has a 50 gallon drum buried half way in their yard right off their back porch. It is not 15 feet from structures and she feels it is safe. Sue Alderman stated that she lives next door to the Moody's. They basically live above her but when they have a fire the smoke comes right into her bedroom window. Alderman said that there is smoke and it smells. She has severe sinus problems and has to turn on her air conditioner when it is 60 degrees outside just so she can sleep and she feels that is ridiculous. Another resident stated that smoke is kind of like rain. If it is raining in, you close the windows. Works the same with smoke. Some of the windows can be left open. Mr.Moody apologized on the record to Ms. Alderman. He stated that there are times when a fire will smoke more then you want it to. They do not want to disturb anyone. Nancy James stated that on the weekends there seems to be a lot of fires. On Saturday nights as they come back into town south on Rt. 47 she can not open her car windows because her eyes and throat burns so badly. Graff said they have documented leaf bruising because of the hazard. Once the leaf burning ordinance became effective then a lot of the hazards in the air decreased. Officers do try to educate the residents. Content was made on a safe distance. Can the Officers decide on a safe distance? Graff suggest maybe a safe distance with the proper extinguishing methods available. The Building Inspector can help educate our Officers and City Employees. We will remove the time limit and the 15 feet and add safe distance. These procedures will be added to the procedure book. Spears would like to have the complaint calls as well as details for the next 90 days. Nancy James feels that leaf burning is not specific enough in the ordinance and should be clearly stated. She feels that now it is kind of an interpretation. Dawson did not feel that we educated very well. He suggests adding the education process to the newsletter. One of the residents suggested maybe having the Boy Scouts help out with educating or maybe something on how to build a fire pit. Burning barrels are ok as long as acceptable items are being burned. Contractors bum on site. That is permitted as long as its wood. We will make the changes discussed and bring it to COW. Prochaska feels that one of the nice things about living in a small community is that you can go talk to your neighbor if there is a problem. If the problem can not be worked out then call the Police in. But he encourages everyone to talk with your neighbors. This will start somewhere around October 5, 1998 so there is enough time to get the word out. Officers will be stopping and checking on items being burned but the Officer will need to have permission to come on to the property. 2.) Budget Review FY 98/99 — We have the most updated overtime usage report. Riverfront days in details. We will get actual cost and hours. Few items in the budget are over. Graff did not add in the overage copies_ Once we make 80,000 copies then we have to start paying maintenance per copy. Now it is costing$0.013 per copy. $1,700 to$1,800 is for the conference that will be coming in. Dare supplies were purchased. Those will be reimbursed with a grant. Graff would like to have Kim set up the grants to show revenue with deduction. Then the revenue will show up. Total percentage will go down. Graff handed out Officers salaries. We are within the budget with the longevity along with the three percent. 3.) August Police Reports—Thefts are down. There have been less gas drive offs at Shell. Graff has met with Shell and educated on what a crime is and when a crime has occurred. Shell is doing some -2- £00[n XV3 LZ=TZ 86/50/OT training. June and July will be corrected. There have been broken windows in cars. We are doing awareness. We do not really know what is going on, wheather the windows are being shot or not. Battery—we are working on conflict resolution in the schools. One of the battery calls was for a push and shove match but no one wanted to press charges. Sexual Offense—Sometime these offenses occur by someone the victim knows. Unfortunately with more people there are more of these types of crimes. Even if it is a juvenile offense it still shows up under sexual offense. Vehicle Report—the second new car has been assigned yet. Good feeling on the Crown Vics. 4.) C.O.P.S. Grant Award Letter—University of Illinois Chicago is going to be our technicial support. MDT's should be installed in January. Hopefully working by March. 5.) Downtown Parking Update-Moving forward. There are a few landscaping issues. 6.) Review Organizational Chart Update—Kot met with Martin. Kot is now working on this. Will have something by the next meeting_ 7.) Technology Update—File Server Upgrade& Y2K Plan—We are working on putting together a Y2K program for the entire City. We are being asked for letters of compliance. We are asking for letters from our software and hardware vendors. 8.) Illinois Violence Prevention Cops Grant Update—Unofficially we got the grant but we need to wait to do anything until we receive it in writing. This will help with battery issues in the schools. 9.) N/E Illinois Chapter A.S.S.E. Safety Grant Update—We received grant. We will be getting a formal letter. $3,000 for safety and$800 for belmets. Helmets will be given out at the schools. Once we get letter we will be asked to come and accept award. New Business 1.) Canine Unit Proposal—Presentation—This is a proposal of what a K-9 unit can bring to Yorkville. A K-9 unit can be used to track individuals that are involved in criminal activity and follow a scent that a Police Officer would not be able to follow. If a suspect is to run, a K-9 can follow the scent to locate the suspect. If a person/child is reported missing/lost and is expected to possible be in the area, by picking up the scent that a human would not be able to and could help ease a family who knows that the police department is using the best available equipment to find their loved one. A K-9 can be used to search large buildings or small homes. A K-9 can be used to locate a hiding suspect,who might be lurking inside a building or home and can take away a criminal element of surprise therefore, increasing officer safety. A K-9 unit can be used in locating weapons that might have been recently used in a crime. A K-9 unit could also locate any article that might have been dropped from a fleeing suspect, which could be used as evidence in court. A K-9 is also trained in narcotic searches. This will help keep drug dealers out of our neighborhoods. A K-9 dog is trained to be lovable dogs. Some of the training that is included is socialization skills, obedience control, agility skills, and controlled aggression. The one time start up cost is about $9966. Dr. Schlapp at Countryside Veterinary Clinic has offered to donate yearly exams, physicals, and shots for the life of the dog and has offered a significant discount on major surgeries should they be needed. Kendall-Grundy FS has given a quote on food at approximately $300 yearly depending on the size of the dog. They City would get a percentage of seizure money if our dog goes somewhere and finds something. We are looking at this in next budget year. Kot is a strong advocate for K-9 units as a safety issue for the officer_ There are a few issues that will need to be worked out with the Union. The dog would stay with one person. If there is a call out that officer has to go. Kot would like to see the last paragraph of the report broken down. Kot supports this as long as the funds are there to cover it. The next step it to put together an administrative proposal. Spang would like to see a demonstration and some ideas on how often a dog would be used, and what type of programs can the dog be useful for. Pleckham will bring back more information. 2.) Dogs and Dangerous Animal Ordinance Review—The City attorney brought this forward. Dan feels that there is unconstitutional wording in the ordinance. What constitutes a disturbance? Continued barking. We need to add what a reasonable person believes. Dean is going to meet with Dan and clean this up. We need to keep barking in the dog ordinance. We should have something by next meeting. If we have a real nuisance then we need to be able to address it. Bring back to next meeting. 3.) Trick or Treating Hours —Looking at recommending trick or treat hours for 2:00 p.m_ to 7:00 p.m. This is only a friendly recommendation. Bring to Cow. -3- t00[n XVd LZ:TZ 86/SO/OT Additional Business Massage Therapist Ordinance—We should have something at next meeting. Abandoned Cars or Cars Outside of Ordinance—This is for cars that do not fall with the realm of the ordinance. Graff said that a survey is usually done in October before the snow falls. We usually end up towing three to four cars. If the car is sitting on the street the Police take care of it right away. Spang would just like to notify the department so that they can educate and do what they need to do. The list represents cars without a valid license plate. Kot thinks that we need to educate more. As long as that car is covered then they can leave it in the driveway. Fox Hill—There are concerns with the construction. There is so much gravel in the streets the people living there are afraid they will not be able to stop when approaching a corner or stop sign. Graff thought they had a list of things to do. Minutes by:Mollie Anderson .4- goo in XV3 LZ:TZ 86/50/01