Brick Building Inventory Revisited

Mar 04, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

Amended Resolution Passes Senate

(KCPW News) Tuesday morning, the Senate resurrected a failed resolution to inventory all the brick buildings in the state at risk of collapsing in an earthquake. Senator Scott Jenkins, from Weber County, voted against the resolution Monday, yet made the motion to revisit it today.

"After spending some time with the sponsor of the bill, and with Senator Fife, we came up with an amendment," Jenkins says.

The amendment restricts the Utah Seismic Safety Commission to only inventory brick buildings that are publicly-owned and includes language that aims to protect the state from lawsuits. The Senate further amended it to remove a provision requiring the state to send the resolution to the Federal Emergency Management Agency - FEMA. This last amendment puzzled Salt Lake County Senator Scott McCoy.

"I can understand why we wouldn't want FEMA involved in case we had any kind of earthquake disaster based on their past performance. But all this says is that we'll send them a copy of the resolution," McCoy says. "I mean it's not like we're sending them a copy of the inventory. It's just a heads-up for them to know that we're doing this."

The move to revisit the brick building inventory came after Senate leadership raised private property and liability concerns Monday, and shot down the resolution with an 11 to 16 vote. The amended bill passed the Senate Tuesday with unanimous support. It now heads back to the House for consideration.

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