The New Florence Fire Protection District held a public meeting on Feb. 26 regarding the possible adoption of four new codes, a move designed to establish construction and safety regulations.

About 25 people attended the 90-minute meeting to hear board members of the fire district talk about the proposal of adopting the 2021 International Building, International Existing Building, International Fire and International Mechanical codes. There was no voting at the meeting.

“I think everybody is at a loss on this a little bit,” board member Terry Hillebrand said. “There has been a lot thrown at us that we don’t know how to handle it.”

Hillebrand said the situation reminded him of something he read about Chief Joseph’s visit to Washington, D.C. in the 1870s. Chief Joseph was a member of the Nez Perce Tribe.

“When he saw the city and everything that had been built, he went back to his people,” Hillebrand said. “He said whether it would be for the good or the bad, there will be change. I think that’s where we stand in our community today.”

Fire district board president Jason Pierson said the board will meet with the New Florence Board of Aldermen to discuss more on the proposal.

Fire lieutenant Tyler Lewis said the board’s responsibility is to help save lives.

“We had one hotel in our district that had its wires snipped,” Lewis said. “We don’t know how long. We had a fire there less than a month ago. We could have pulled 50-60 bodies out of that building. This is really how it all started.”

Chris Cuddihee, who works for the Wentzville and New Melle fire departments, and Daniel McLaughlin, an attorney from the St. Louis area, were also in attendance.

Cuddihee has worked in the code business for 35 years. He said the codes will help improve safety in the New Florence area since two data centers are proposed to be built there.

“The fire district has to adopt the code because any firewall built in any building comes from the building code,” Cuddihee said. “That’s why we adopt this. We don’t do foundations and don’t do footings. That’s the building department’s project. That’s the way it’s been for the 35 years I’ve been doing it.”

The 14-page proposed ordinance included regulations for open burning, bonfires, security gates, fire hydrants and getting a permit from the fire code official.

New Florence City Administrator David Ingle told board members that he was disappointed that they didn’t consult with the board of aldermen regarding the changes.

“The board of aldermen in this community, which I represent, has taken great strides to protect the smaller community to not allow certain manufacturing and certain particular growth,” Ingle said. “They just redid their master plan to help resolve some of these issues. This code, the way that has been presented to the fire board, if it were to pass, would cause in my opinion a tremendous financial as well as detriment to the economic growth of the future of this city.”

Montgomery County Planning and Zoning Administrator Donna Viehmann said she demands new businesses establish a working partnership with their fire districts.

“Coordination and communication between businesses and emergency services are something I actively promote and support,” Viehmann said. “My concern is not fire safety. My concern is judicial overlap, statutory authority and practical enforcement. If the board has read each and every volume that has adopted those three books by the IBC, IFC and all reference manuals and agrees with the words that are written in black and white, then that decision is yours and I welcome it. However, if every manual has not been fully reviewed and understood, I believe there should be a pause in the voting process.”

Jennifer George, vice president of development of NorthPoint Development, handed out copies of the construction plan of Project Green, a data center to be located east of New Florence, at the meeting. NorthPoint is a real estate development firm that is partnering with Amazon Web Services to develop the first phase of Project Green.

“This is a sizable project and tremendous capital investment that in order to be able to attract capital and insurance for the property, we can’t just build anything,” George said. “So we are designing the project entirely to the 2021 building code.”

New Florence Alderman Deby Juntunen told board members that she is concerned about the business owners in the New Florence area since there are multiple buildings that were built before 1970 and are not remotely up to code.

“I’m more concerned about those people along I-70 that are going to have to upgrade to hundreds of thousands of dollars, which will throw them out of business,” Juntunen said. “They can’t afford it.”