After numerous complaints from elderly condominium owners that the city`s elevator code is too costly, the Des Plaines City Council has decided to delay enforcement of the code for seven years.
In three years, the council also will review the code to see if it should be kept.
”I think we can put this off for at least seven years and re-evaluate it later on,” Mayor Michael Albrecht said. ”We`re all for safety, but there`s a limit.”
The code, started in 1986, requires that elevators go down to the first floor and open whenever the sprinkler system is set off. In case of fire on the first floor, the elevators must have equipment that would seek out a safe floor.
The code applies to buildings four stories or higher. No other municipality in the area is enforcing a similar code, Albrecht said.
City Manager Larry Asaro said the code has been enforced only recently.
It was formulated in reaction to the 1980 MGM Grand Hotel fire in Las Vegas in which 84 people died, some of them in an elevator.
Elevator inspector John Thompson asked if the city wanted all its codes enforced, Asaro said. Thompson, who declined comment, recently began handing out warnings telling residents they had a year to comply.
About 75 condominium owners, mostly senior citizens, attended a meetings with city staff in May and July.
Wallace Weinberg of 1702 Mill St. said condominium owners, many of whom are on Social Security, would not be able to pay for updating the elevators.
Thompson said he expected the changes to cost about $5,000 to $15,000 per elevator. But residents say they have gotten estimates as high as $31,000 to update antiquated systems and get a warranty.
Ellen Bearden said the elevator repairs would cost each resident in her building, Shearwood Manor Condominiums, about $1,000.
She questioned the usefulness of the elevator ordinance in saving lives.
”We`ve all been trained since time immemorial that you don`t get into an elevator if there`s a fire,” she said.
Earle Heffley, spokesman for the Illinois state fire marshal`s Fire Protection Bureau, said such a code is intended not only to prevent people from getting trapped in an elevator but also to allow firefighters to use an elevator`s trap door to route hose to upper floors.
Des Plaines elevators are equipped with emergency lights, a phone and a key that allows firefighters into the controls, Asaro said.
