AUBURN - The Cayuga County Ways and Means committee Tuesday tabled a resolution to amend a proposal for replacing the fire system at the Cayuga County nursing home. Binder Electric Corporation, the company that was awarded the bid, originally drafted a proposal that indicated the cost would be approximately $101,000, said chairman of the Ways and Means committee Francis Mitchell.

However, codes enforcement officer Jerry VeVone requested that additional smoke and heat detectors be installed because the specifications of the original drawings of the building were inaccurate. As a result, the updated cost estimate would increase by up to 30 percent, Mitchell, R-Genoa said.

The original proposal did not include smoke detectors in each sleeping room, nursing home administrator Deb English said. After taking those changes into consideration, the additional cost for the project would be $30,610.

“If a resident smokes in their room, and they're not supposed to or have smoking materials, but if they did, that could cause a problem,” English said. “That was one of the examples that he gave me as to why he's concerned there would be damage or injury, or the sprinklers wouldn't go off.”

The current state law requires the nursing home to have smoke and heat detectors in public areas, but not in every room in the building. Right now, the nursing home has detectors in sleeping areas as well, English said.

Binder Electric Corporation has offered to discount the $30,610 by $8,000 if the county buildings and grounds department takes care of the finishing work. The company has also agreed to accept a 2 percent prompt payout discount, which would save the county an additional $2,475.20, bringing the total increase of the project to $20,134.80.

“We have to justify why we do need to have an additional expense,” said Raymond Lockwood, R-Fleming. “If it's necessary, we should err on the side of caution and have them rather than not have them.”

Christopher Palermo, along with other legislators, wanted to know why the codes officer requested these additional smoke detectors if they are not required by state law.

“I'm not in favor of a code enforcement officer that's also our employee requiring us to go above and beyond what the state building codes and the state fire codes require,” Palermo, R-Sterling, said.

During the discussion, Daniel Schuster, D-Auburn, said that maybe the county should fire VeVone. He also recommended for VeVone to come to the health and human services committee meeting for further discussion.

English said that she could understand both the county's and VeVone's concerns.

“The committee has to do what they think is right. We have public safety in mind and the taxpayer's interest ... Every decision should be made carefully,” English said. “We have them now and they are currently fully operational. I think you could look at it either way. It's a nice safety feature, but on the other hand, is it overkill? That's something that the committee has to decide.”

Staff writer Gitana Mirochnik can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or gitana.mirochnik@lee.net