St. Martinville – The St. Martinville City Council forgave its monthly lease agreement with the Board of Directors of the Maris Stella Classical Academy at the council’s Sept. 2 meeting after the school could not enroll enough students to open.
Adam Conque, a deacon at St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church and president of the MSCA Founding Board of Directors, told the council in a letter that the school would not be opening because of low enrollment.
The board had saved enough money to purchase an air conditioner for the upstairs part of the building, around $12,000, which would have been paid to the city as part of the monthly lease, but was granted the opportunity to use the money as severance pay for teachers the school had hired to move to the city in anticipation of the school’s opening.
Building permits
Councilman Mike Fuse - lier raised questions about a property that a Bible study group wanted to rent for use a couple of times a week, the former Attakapas Printing building on South Main Street, after it failed an inspection because of dangerous electrical wiring.
Fuselier said that the building had been rented as a Pilates studio for two years and had been a crossfit gym for several years before that.
An inspection was needed because the power had been off for more than six months, and on top of that the Fire Marshal’s office had to inspect the building as well.
Lease
Apparently no inspection had been done by the Fire Marshal for the previous two renters.
The building failed a subsequent inspection because the entire electrical service inside and outside had to be replaced because of a dangerous double lug connection outside the building.
“No way power could be turned on because of extreme danger and hazard to anyone in the building,” Fuselier said. “In the words of the inspector, someone could get killed.”
Fuselier said he did not question the inspector’s findings, but has serious concerns about the process and findings.
“If the inspection shows that this building is an extreme danger and hazardous to the public and, quote, ‘someone could get killed,’, how was a Pilates studio allowed to operate for two years?” Fuselier asked. “If an inspection showed that a building was an extreme danger, and hazardous to the public and someone could get killed, how was a health club allowed to operate in this dangerous building for years prior to that? Were there any permits? Were there any inspections? Why was the meter still on the building and electricity going through? Because when I went in there I turned it on and the lights started flickering. We found out that the meter was still in there. They had put some boots on there or something, but the boots don’t always work, so apparently this was a ticking time bomb that was allowed to happen.
“My third question is, if this is so dangerous, this is the most visible building on Main Street. This double lug thing that was so dangerous was painted with the building, probably about seven or eight years ago. I don’t disagree with Mr. Richard’s inspections, I just want to know how all these businesses functioned in this building that could kill somebody.”
Rodney “Cooney” Richard, the building inspector, said the only answer he had is that nobody ever turned the electrical service off for the building.
Richard said the Federal Pacific panel that the building’s electrical service goes through are notorious for overheating and starting fires, and the building has no main breakers. The two panels have no main panels to cut power off in emergencies.
Councilwoman Carol Frederick asked if inspections had been done in the past, and Richard said they had not been, which is not unusual for St. Martinville or a lot of other small towns.
Richard went on to say that when used as a gym (a business), codes say that the square footage must be divided by 150 to figure out occupancy. Only 12 people should have been allowed in the building when used as a gym.
As a church, or Bible study group, the footage is divided by 7, which means that 242 people could use the space at a time.
The only time an inspection had to be done, however, was if electricity was turned off for six months. If the renter changed before power had been turned off for six months, then no inspection was needed.
Richard said that according to the building codes, a change of occupancy requires a building permit because emergency lights, ramps, egress issues and other things must be dealt with.
“By rights, this building should be made to be brought up to code,” Richard said. “Now I don’t think we’re going to go this far, but I can almost guarantee you that the bathrooms may not be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act compliant). Of course, churches are exempt from ADA.”
Richard said that the gym and Pilates studio should have had to make the building compliant with building codes.
Fuselier said that if he had known of the issues, he wouldn’t have spent a month going through the inspections and Fire Marshal’s report to try to get the building usable.
“Another thing is we don’t have procedures,” Fuselier said.
Richard said that cities like Broussard have someone in the city permitting department tell anyone planning a change of occupancy to submit a set of plans for the change.
Frederick said the city needs some sort of guidance for people going into the planning and zoning office to follow if they want to move into a building.
Richard said he could obtain a copy of the steps that Broussard or another city requires for a change of occupancy, as an example that St. Martinville could use.
Richard told Fuselier that for the building to be used, it needed to be rewired inside and out and the old panels changed for up-tocode panels, as well as emergency lights and exit lights installed. Once that is done a walk-through inspection would be done.
