HANCEVILLE, Ala.- Hanceville Assistant Fire Chief Bart Absher at Thursday night’s city council meeting discussed the possibility of the City requiring all new businesses to use KnoxBoxes. A KnoxBox is a secure box that houses keys or access cards, which can be accessed by first responders to give them immediate access into secure buildings, campuses, residences and commercial properties.
Said Absher, “The boxes keep us from doing any type of damage when entering a structure. The fire department has one key. We have the key. Not the police department, only the fire department. There’s about 16,000 municipalities nationwide that use this program, No one key matches anyone else’s key. (It) cannot be duplicated by a locksmith or anything.”
The program has been available in Hanceville on a volunteer basis. The fire department is asking the City to consider an ordinance requiring all new businesses to participate in the program.
“Say the business has a fire alarm,” said Absher. “The fire alarm goes off at 3 a.m. on a Sunday morning. We get there and the keyholder lives at Smith Lake. Do we break the door and damage their door to get in and turn their alarm off? Or if we had a box, we could open it with the key and get right in.”
The commercial boxes would cost a business approximately $400.
Absher added, “In 2012, the international fire code adopted a lock box program. It’s already in the fire codes, so if we are going to abide by those codes down the road, then this a program that is already established and already out there.”
The council voiced support for the program and asked Absher to begin composing an ordinance for the council to consider in the near future. For residents interested in the KnoxBox program for their homes, boxes are available for less than $200.
Said Absher, “We have several of these in town and we have them all the way out in the county. They were bought for people with mobility issues or a family member bought them for a loved one.”
Hanceville Mayor Kenneth Nail addressed COVID-19 (coronavirus), urging residents to “be calm and use common sense.”
He stated, “I have talked with the fire chief and the police chief. There are some things in mind and protocols that have been changed. When you call 911, they are going to be asking you some more questions about possible sicknesses in your house, so don’t be real excited or alarmed if they walk in the door right off the bat with masks and gloves on. Just a little side note, my wife just started working at Emory, which is right next to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) basically. They are telling them, just basically use common sense. Try not to sneeze on anybody. Sneeze on your sleeve. Try not to cough on anybody. Thorough and constant hand washing they say is the key. There are going to be people die with this, there’s no doubt about it. There’s people that die of the flu every year, a lot more than what this thing has killed so far. I’m not real excited about it. I think it’s going to be OK. We will be in a meeting on Tuesday at Cullman City Hall for an update with (Cullman County) EMA, so maybe we will find out if there are other things coming in from the State. We will go to that meeting and what we can release, we will release.”
Tuesday’s meeting is a not open to the public.
Commercial, Church and Blountsville Streets will be closed beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday morning for the Hanceville Irish Festival. All four streets are expected to be reopened at approximately 6 p.m. after the festival.
In other business:
The council approved the payment of an invoice from ALDOT from an ATRIP project completed in 2013 for $1,414.35.
The council has scheduled a free community yard sale for the weekend of April 17-18. Following the yard sale weekend, the week of April 20-24 will be free landfill pickup. Items must be placed outside for pickup by noon on Friday.
The council approved Resolution No. 642 regarding Employee Retirement System Tier II Benefits; Hanceville City Clerk Tania Wilcox explained, “It’s to provide Tier II members with Tier I benefits.”
The council tabled approving the contract with engineering firm Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood for the gutters and repaving project on Commercial Street. The project is part of Governor Kay Ivey’s Rebuild Alabama Act Annual Grant Program.
The council also approved Resolution No. 643 authorizing Nail to sign paperwork for the U.S. Highway 31 Drainage Project.
The next council meeting will be March 26 at 6 p.m. preceded by a work session at 5:30.
Copyright 2020 Humble Roots, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
