The Elon Town Council met on April 29 and focused on changes to the fire department and new policies the department will be enforcing.
The council voted to approve a fire district tax rate and an ordinance that would extend boundaries of the town to allow for an extension of corporate limits in the town of Elon. Both were unanimously approved by the council.
The council also allowed Town of Elon Fire Chief Landon Massey to speak. He introduced the town’s new fire marshall, Brian Graves.
Previously, inspections were done by county inspectors at no cost. However, Elon is implementing a new method to directly hire inspectors.
Along with Graves and Massey’s input, the council discussed the impact of hiring fire inspectors for the town. While this was already approved, the council discussed how this might impact citizens of Elon — particularly for citizens who own businesses.
The council discussed how this could impact Elon citizens that own businesses, who will now need to pay for fire inspections out of their own pockets. Council member Randy Orwig expressed his concerns, and asked Massey what the benefits of this change are and how he can defend the change to citizens who might not want to pay for these inspections.
According to Massey, the fire department did this to streamline the inspection process under one roof.
“So when things happen that are dangerous to the fire department and to the public, there's not a break in the communication coming out of the office,” Massey said.
Massey said the town will be implementing a tiered system of charging inspections, which is currently being utilized by Durham’s fire departments.
Massey also brought up the topic of fines for those who park in fire lanes, and the idea of increasing the required distance between a parked car and a fire hydrant from 5 to 15 feet. Orwig said he was concerned this would require changes to current parking spots, including ones at Elon University.
Graves said that it would be a culture shock to the town, and enforcement would only be successful if people were educated on the matter.
“My way of enforcing the code enforcement is to not enforce, but to educate. To tell people why this is important,” Graves said.
Orwig said the use of fire lanes and these areas between hydrants as loading zones could prove to make enforcement difficult.
“We're talking about an enforcement nightmare here,” Orwig said. “But like you said, I think as long as people understand that there's a culture of that, you'll start to see a little bit more understanding.”
The council also discussed how the fire department will start charging fines for false fire alarms. This will only apply to alarms that go off due to not being maintained consistently. It is aimed to encourage places to regularly update and fix their fire alarms in order to prevent the fire department from having to constantly go to the same area due to a broken fire alarm.
“It gives them the judgment to keep trucks and personnel from risking their lives going to a faulty alarm,” Graves said.
Almost 20 community members attended this meeting, which contrasts an absence of people at town council meetings for the past few months.
Seventeen of these community members were there to speak out against Aspen Avenue, and revealed their hope that it would be closed permanently. Construction on Aspen Avenue has been in contention for over a year, as residents have become concerned over it becoming the main entrance to the Owen Park Subdivision in Gibsonville. According to residents who have spoken at previous Elon Town Council meetings, utilizing this entrance has brought more traffic to the neighborhood along with concerns that it makes the neighborhood less safe.
The majority of these community members left the meeting after the council decided to postpone discussions for a later date because the council felt they weren’t prepared enough to talk about the issue.
The council closed by recognizing Orwig for being named the 2023 Main Street Champion for his work in the downtown area. He worked with Elon University, the town of Elon and the Elon Community Church to organize events in the social district. Orwig also helped keep the Elon Farmer’s Market alive this year when it was considered to be eliminated from the budget.