DeKalb Fire Chief Eric Hicks said department personnel will conduct inspections for the Fire Safety Registration and Inspection Program, while business owners voiced concerns over the program at Monday’s City Council.

Hicks said the Fire Department does not need to hire anyone to do the inspections because some of his employees are being trained to do so, keeping the city from spending on the program.

This ordinance would not be ex post facto, Hicks said, meaning any buildings built in a different time would not fail if they did not meet modern safety precautions.

Accountant Marianne Anderson said the ordinance was not business-friendly, while Linda Walt of Walt Ltd. said the changes made to the ordinance were much improved, but she said she was turned off by “grandfathering,” or exempting people from the law.

Walt said the ordinance was not very specific on how it works, and this would bring up concerns about older buildings that may or may not fit under the safety regulations being put in place.

In turn, any business that would open in those older buildings would have to find a new place to open shop, or they would have to spend money to make the building correspond to the ordinance.

For more information on the City Council discussion on the ordinance, see the Thursday issue of the Northern Star.