Officials rescind ordinance on repeated false fire alarms

KENNETT TOWNSHIP » If you’re worried that sizzling-hot frying pan will get you in legal trouble in Kennett Township, worry no more.

At their first monthly meeting Wednesday night, the Kennett Township Board of Supervisors rescinded the ordinance giving the township the power to levy fines for repeated false fire alarms.

Township Police Chief Lydell Nolt said emergency services personnel had been considering the

case of false alarms for several years, and they found the false-alarm fines, which could rise to $100 an instance for repeat offenders, were actually discouraging people from using their alarms at all.

False alarms were not a substantial problem for the township, Nolt said. Usually they were caused by a mechanical problem, he said. But the knowledge that the ordinance was on the books made people afraid to hook up alarms, for fear they’d have to pay every time an overly sensitive alarm responded to cooking food or other non-emergency situations.

Nolt mentioned that many alarms have a failsafe system where a person monitoring the alarm calls to check the situation, or a homeowner can stop the alarm from alerting the fire company.

The potential danger of people not using their alarms was considerably more serious than any inconvenience from responding to false alarms, according to Nolt. “It’s significant if they don’t get used,” he said.

Township Manager Lisa Moore said one 55plus community had experienced repeated false alarms, and found it was due to a mechanical problem with the alarms, which she said were in the process of being fixed.

Moore said in the future, the fire marshal would visit any properties triggering repeat false alarms to look into what was causing the problem.

Nolt said in the rare instance of a person who was negligently or maliciously causing repeat false alarms, the township had other ordinances it could use to address the problem.

The supervisors voted unanimously to rescind the alarm ordinance. Supervisor Whitney Hoffman was not present.

In other business, the township joined a movement to urge area municipalities to use only clean, renewable energy sources. The goal is to have all-renewable electricity by 2035, and renewable heat and transportation energy sources by 2050.

The resolution said the township would investigate the opportunities and by April 19, 2019 would create a plan to move toward more renewable energy use.

The goal was to mitigate the effects of fossil fuels and avoid further ill effects from climate change, it said.

Supervisor Richard Leff said the township and other participating municipalities could create a co-op to buy renewable energy at more affordable rates.

Former supervisor Michael Elling said he questioned some of the premises about climate change the movement was based on, and thought the resolution should be tabled and studied further. But the supervisors voted unanimously to pass it.

Moore gave a presentation on the emergency services commission, an effort by Kennett Township and five other area municipalities to ensure the three fire companies serving them, including Longwood, Kennett, and Po-Mar-Lin, were receiving their fair share of funding from each.

Before the creation of the commission, Kennett Township had been paying an average of $656,451 for a 10year period. Now the township was paying $475,000 per year for a guaranteed three-year period, after which time it could reevaluate the arrangement and opt out if township officials wished.

“So far it seems to be operating well,” Moore said.

Former Supervisor Chris Burkett said a new emergency-services tax that began this year to fund the township’s full-coverage police force meant the township needed to be especially frugal when considering other expenditures.