Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
More distance eases job for firefighters
By MATT SCALLAN
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
The St. Charles Parish Council on Monday will consider an ordinance to require mobile homes and recreational vehicle parks to keep at least 25 feet between the coaches, an increase from the current 15-foot spacing requirement.
The new requirements, which would not affect existing parks, would improve safety for firefighters, said Reggie Gaubert, chief of the Hahnville Volunteer Fire Department.
“You get a lot of radiant heat from those trailers when they’re on fire,” he said. “It’s easier for us to fight the fire when they’re farther apart.”
Gaubert said he and other volunteer fire chiefs recommended that spacing be increased as hundreds of trailers have sprung up in the parish in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A trailer fire at an industrial site at the Dow plant in Taft after Katrina that damaged two nearby trailers brought the point home to firefighters.
Many of the parks were set up at industrial plants to house displaced workers.
Also on Monday, the council will consider raising rates for taxi drivers licensed to pick up passengers in the parish by an average of 15 percent.
Parish Councilman Ganesier “Ram” Ramchandran, who said he is sponsoring the measure at the request of cab drivers, said it would increase the price of a trip from Destrehan to the airport from $15 to $25.
Another proposed ordinance would reduce the distance between businesses that sell alcoholic beverages and sites such as churches and schools from 500 feet to 300 feet in developed areas that have “streets, blocks and sidewalks.”
Councilman Brian Fabre, the proposal’s sponsor, said the ordinance would put the parish in line with state law and protect it against possible legal judgments.
Parish Attorney Robert Raymond said the current law sets the minimum distance at 500 feet regardless of whether the area is developed. The distance under state law is calculated as distance a pedestrian would walk from one building to the other, rather than a direct line.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Parish Courthouse.