Office of Facilities Planning
Newsletter #62 – April 2005
 

Fire Safety Certification:

Please be aware that we have made the following change to the SED Fire Safety Report.  PART III for CERTIFICATIONS, Section III-A, the Fire Safety Inspector’s certification statement, has had the second sentence added.

“I hereby certify that I inspected this building on                                 (date) and the information noted in this Fire Safety Report represents, to the best of my knowledge and belief, an accurate description of the building and conditions observed.  I further certify that my certification is current and I have maintained in-service requirements pursuant to Title 19 Part 434.5(a)(2).”

Regulatory requirements of Title 19 NYCRR Part 434 for Minimum Standards for Code Enforcement Personnel prescribes In-Service Code Enforcement Training of 24 hours annually.  The Department of State Division of Code Enforcement and Administration has provided a list of Code Enforcement Officials who have successfully completed and maintained their training as described in the regulations.  These two lists are considered current certifications.  Those Code Enforcement Officials who have not maintained the prescribed In-Service Training credits during 2004 are not listed on these lists, and therefore, are not considered to have a current certification.  As a result, those Code Enforcement Officials not listed are not able to claim they are qualified to perform inspections pursuant to the procedures established by the State Fire Administrator, which is the Department of State (refer to Title 8 NYCRR 155.8(b) of the Commissioner of Educations’ Regulations).

Please review the list titled “2005 List of New York State Certified Code Enforcement Officials” on the DOS web site at http://www.dos.state.ny.us/code/certCEOlist.htm to be sure your fire inspector’s certification is current prior to providing Fire Safety Inspections for schools.

All Fire Safety Report material is on the Facilities Planning web site.  As the reports are downloaded you will find this change is already incorporated into the Certification page.  Please do not submit the old Certification form beginning with the June 2005 inspection cycle.  The old form will be returned.  https://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/FireSafety/fire_safety_report_homepage.html.

Labeling Emergency Lights:

It is strongly recommended that all newly installed emergency lights be easily identifiable for inspection and facilitating required maintenance.  Wall mounted battery pack emergency lights are readily identifiable by their form.  However, ceiling mounted emergency light fixtures, which have integral battery ballast backup, or are tied into an emergency power system (i.e. emergency generator), are not easily identifiable.  Labels should be attached to these fixtures so that they are readily discernible for testing purposes.  In addition, some emergency lights are designed to be illuminated at all times.  Since these lights are on all the time, the lamps (bulbs) are likely to burn out faster than the rest of the lights serving the area.  Lamps must be replaced immediately upon burning out in order to maintain emergency light coverage.  These items all reinforce why labeling the emergency fixtures will assist in maintenance of the system.  It is likely that labeling of emergency light fixtures will become an Education Department requirement in the future.

During the Annual Fire Safety Inspection the corresponding emergency power sources of emergency lights must be identified.  Emergency lights, other than those with batteries, cannot be circuited from a normal power panel. 

Competitive Bidding:

The General Building Contractors of New York State (GBC) have an interesting article on their web site that we feel may interest and benefit many people.  The article is about Competitive Bidding and contains great information about Public Advertisement, Award to the Low Responsible and Responsive Bidder, and Equivalents (“Or Equals”).  It’s a great article and very informative.  http://www.gbcnys.agc.org/public/owners/Competitive%20bidding.asp

Get the Lead Out:

There has been a renewed interest about lead in drinking water of schools after the problems surfaced in Washington DC with old lead services. SED has conducted surveys in New York State on this issue.  An article on lead is available on our website at

https://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/HealthSafety/GetLeadOut_042105.html

New Certificate of Substantial Completion form, FP-CSC 4/2005:

Please download the NEW updated Certificate of Substantial Completion form.  Please begin using it right away.  It is on our web site forms page at https://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/SubInfo.htm.

 

We have updated the regulatory references, the code references, and added Special Inspections.  The old form will eventually be unacceptable because of the Special Inspection requirements.  Please dispose of previous versions of this form.  The date on this form is on the top left of both pages and reads 04/2005.

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.