Facilities Planning Banner

Office of Facilities Planning
Newsletter #36 – February 2003

 

Get to Know us Better:

We would like you to meet Melissa Peters. Melissa was a new addition to our office at the start of this year and says she is happy to be working in Facilities Planning. She will be turning 21 years old next month and starting at Hudson Valley Community College this fall to get her administrative technical degree. When she is not working, Melissa enjoys hanging out with friends, going to the movies, going shopping and snowmobiling.

Fire Inspections, Annual and Initial Certificates of Occupancy:

School District buildings are required to have fire inspections both annually and to receive their initial certificate of occupancy after construction. The certificate of occupancy is reissued each year after the annual fire inspection. For more information about fire inspections, you can find the SED Manual for Public School Facilities Fire Prevention and Fire Inspections on our web site at https://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/publicat/FireSafetyInspectionManual.pdf.

An item of interest that has been brought to our attention regarding the fire inspections is that local fire officials are not being directly notified of the annual inspection. The requirements for planning the annual inspections in pages 5 and 7 in the manual above states when fire inspections are performed by other than a representative of the local fire department the Education Law requires that school officials notify the local fire chief prior to the inspection. The notification must include the time, date and location of the annual fire inspection. Local fire officials may accompany anyone retained by the board of education during the annual inspection.

Education law, S 807-a, Fire Inspections, http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?cl=30&a=41, provides detail for fire chief notification and who may represent the fire department. This does not provide for the local village, town or county building inspector to be involved in place of the fire official. Please be knowledgeable of these requirements and provide the proper notification to local fire departments for their participation in annual fire inspections. The fire chief notification should be done in a written message to the fire chief. Public notices in newspapers do not suffice.

Using the International Building Code
:

We are only scratching the surface as we begin our review of projects that are utilizing the new code. Already we are finding that most of the Code Compliance Checklists are NOT being completed as required by the new code. Please review Newsletter #30 in which we introduced the new Code Compliance Checklist. https://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/Newsletter/Newsletter_30.html

The information we are requiring on most of the Code Compliance Checklist pages can be traced back to specific code requirements that require it to be provided. Please print one out and follow along with these hints.

Page 1, General Information: Fill in every line, use "NA" boxes only if appropriate.

Very important for pages 2 through the end, the information provided is for work within the project. Not the whole existing building.

Page 2, Required Information: Fill in every line, use "NA" boxes only if appropriate.

Page 3, Architectural Design: Fill in every line, but be careful when checking the "not applicable" box. You must read the code requirements and be sure whether the item is applicable or not.

Page 4, Structural Design: This information is required to be provided by the new building code.

Page 5, Energy Conservation: This information is required to be provided by the new energy code.

http://www.energycodes.gov/register.cfm?software=COMcheck-EZ&type=NewYork

Page 6, Mechanical Design: Fill in every line, but be careful when checking the "not applicable" box. You must read the code requirements and be sure whether the item is applicable or not.

Page 10, Fire Code Requirements: We are attempting to complete this page as soon as possible. The Fire Code of New York State has requirements for new and existing buildings. Until we complete this page, please refer to Newsletter #31, which noted most of the requirements.

https://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/Newsletter/Newsletter_31.html.

An Index of our Newsletters is available on our web site at
https://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/NewsLetters.htm.

If you would like to have this Newsletter sent directly to you by e-mail, please send your e-mail address to Joe Levy at jlevy@mail.nysed.gov

Please continue to send in your comments and requests. If you have a subject you would like addressed, feedback on the material you read, input or general comments we are happy to hear from you.