Wednesday, April 07, 1999
Catholic schools violate codes
Archdiocese picks up 3,000 citations
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati fire and building code inspectors identified more than 3,000 violations in 21 of the city's Catholic schools during visits in the past 18 months.
The citations — about 400 pertaining to the building code and 2,600 to fire codes — range from inaudible fire alarms and inadequate emergency lighting to improper storage of combustibles and failure to post tornado escape plans.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has appealed at least 500 violations, asking city Fire Chief Robert Wright to reconsider whether some offenses truly are “a distinct hazard to life or property” as identified. According to a progress report the archdiocese filed with the city in February, such citations pertain to exit lighting, doorstops and locks, extension cords and other issues.
Hundreds of others have been corrected, according to the report.
Although numerous, none of the violations found in Catholic schools is an “emergency or life-threatening” offense, said William Langevin, the city's director of buildings and inspections. Some of the building and fire violations are duplicative, he added.
“The parochial schools don't have the more serious structural problems the public schools face like holes in walls, leaking ceilings, cornices falling down,” Mr. Langevin said.
Yet archdiocesan officials have objected to many of the compliance orders, saying the city unfairly is trying to apply modern codes to old buildings.
Besides, building and fire codes change so often that a school could be in compliance one day and out the next, said David S. Collins, president of the PREVIEW Group, a consulting firm the archdiocese hired to respond to the violations and manage compliance.
“These are ongoing issues that every building manager in the city has dealt with at one time or another,” he said.
The inspections were begun in late 1997 in the name of fairness, after city inspectors found more than 4,000 violations in Cincinnati Public Schools in 1996.
In the district's 79 schools, inspectors found exposed wiring, holes in walls and ceilings, outdated fire alarms and other problems. Many of those violations still haven't been corrected, although CPS officials recently hired a former firefighter to speed up compliance and inspect schools.
For the Catholic school checks, inspectors first looked at the city's nine biggest schools — Elder, Guardian Angels, McAuley, McNicholas, Mother of Mercy, Our Lady of Lourdes, Purcell Marian, Seton and Summit Country Day.
They then inspected Cardinal Pacelli, Little Flower, Nativity, Seven Hills Doherty, Seven Hills, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Lawrence, St. Mary, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ursula, St. Ursula Villa and St. Williams.
About 20 other city Catholic schools will be inspected in the coming year, said Mike Kroeger, the city's assistant fire chief in charge of fire prevention.
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