City officials end smoking inside rescue squad facility

The building, which is currently being used by the Warren County Rescue Squad, was recently inspected for insurance purposes. The city was presented with several recommendations for changes that need to be made in order to continue insurance coverage unchanged:

? Install fire extinguishers.

? Remove firewood that is being stored in the building.

? Change the building to nonsmoking and place no smoking signs at the entrance.

If the changes are not made, this could negatively effect the city?s insurance coverage in the future. The city is not in danger of losing its coverage but future costs for coverage could increase.

Also, ignoring the recommended changes could also make the city financially liable for future accidents. If an accident occurred and it was directly related to one of the recommendations that was not changed, the city would be open to liability.

Building and Grounds Committee chairman Billy Wood suggested that in the future the city can look into donating the building to the organization to free city taxpayers from possible liability.

Until then, the top three recommendations will be done as soon as possible.

If the building is donated to the rescue squad, the city will continue its yearly donation of $6,000 to help the non-profit organization pay for insurance and utilities.