ue restaurant owners are expected to show up at the albuquerque city council meeting — to express their concern over new fire code regulations that some say could force them out of business. but one city councilor is trying to lighten the load for them. jeff maher has the story. it’s a stressful time for the many albuquerque restaurant owners who have not addednminute thumbnailn10:09 pm sprinkler systems to meet the requirements of the 2003 international fire code. the code stems from a tragic nightclub fire in rhode island where 100 people were killed. depending on the size of the restaurant, they could end up paying more than 150-thousand dollars to install a new sprinkler system. the code is for larger restaurants, but in 2005, the city extended it to smaller ones as well. “these are restaurants that employ a lot of people in our town” city councilor dan lewis has a proposal that grandfather the code in for establishments with an occupancy of 500 or less. that means — the smaller-size restaurants would not have to install the expensive sprinkler systems. but they would still be subjected to inspections by the fire marshal — who may require them to add fire extinguishers, alarms, and other fire-prevention methods. city councilor ken sanchez says the restaurants would much rather have fire marshal inspections, than spend big bucks for the sprinklers. “we’re getting word from businesses that they just cannot afford to this in this economy, many of the business owners will be saying, we will be going out of business”nminute thumbnailn10:10 pm jeff maher. kob. eyewitness news 4. some of the restaurants that have expressed concern over the fire code include scalo, dions, artichoke cafe, and v-f-w-posts. we were unable to reach the managers of those establishments for comments today.
restaurant owners are expected to show up at the albuquerque city council meeting — to express their concern over new fire code regulations that some say could force them out of business. but one city councilor is trying to lighten the load for them. jeff maher has the story. it’s a stressful time for the many albuquerque restaurant owners who have not added sprinkler systems to meet the requirements of the 2003 international fire code. the code stems from a tragic nightclub fire in rhode island where 100 people were killed. depending on the size of the restaurant, they could end up paying more than 150-thousand dollars to install a new sprinkler system. the code is for larger restaurants, but in 2005, the city extended it to smaller ones as well. “these are restaurants that employ a lot of people in our town” city councilor dan lewis has a proposal that grandfather the code in for esta
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