Owens-Brockway Glass Inc. needs to fix fan system

The plant began operation earlier this year.Richard McDonald of Madison, Ohio, representing the contractor that built the bottle manufacturing facility near the Colorado Division of Kodak, told commissioners that he believes he met the codes.The Windsor-Severance Fire Protection District, represented by Chief Jerry Ward, told commissioners the district still has a problem with the design of the smoke-heat fan system.

Ward said, however, he believed three other issues the fire protection district had were being settled as of Monday.

McDonald said the heat-smoke fan system — which is designed to vent the building of heat and smoke to allow firefighters to get to the source of a fire — is hooked to two separate power sources from Poudre Valley REA. In addition, it is designed so that a generator would supply power within five seconds of both sources of power going out, which he said would be rare.

“Basically, we feel we have met the code,” McDonald said. The fire protection district, he said, believes the company has not met the code, resulting in a problem of interpretation.

The company has appealed the ruling by the district.

Commissioner Mike Geile asked McDonald how long of an extension he would need to bring the system up to code, but McDonald said that would be hard to determine.

“It wouldn’t be long if we could go and take something off the shelf to fix it. But if it requires engineering, then it could take awhile,” he said.

Ward said it was the fire district’s goal to work through the process and told the commissioners that appeal should take about three weeks.

“Within 30 days, we should have a resolution,” Ward said.

The commissioners voted 3-0 — Bill Jerke and Rob Masden were absent — to give the extension on the code requirements.