Enforce smoking ban by west entrance of King

To the Editor:

(This is an open letter to Associate Dean of the College Bruce Richards)

We ask the College to undertake an immediate enforcement of the ban against smoking in the vicinity of the west entrance of the King Building. All efforts to correct the hazardous pollution caused by second hand smoke have failed. People in the building are at risk for cancer and other serious maladies. It is now time for a vigorous enforcement of the rules in the interest of insuring a safe and healthful work environment.

-41 concerned members of the Oberlin faculty

City and College fire inspection policies are illegal and unethical

To the Editor:

The fire which caused the tragic deaths of two people on February 28 has made every citizen of this town sit up and take notice. We cannot explain why there was no smoke detector installed at 21 Morgan Street. Surely had there been one, two lives might have been spared. This fire was followed by two others affecting college students, one on North Park Street, another in an unlicensed rooming house on Groveland Street.

I am concerned and appalled that when there are so many properties in Oberlin where not even battery operated smoke detectors are functioning, the City chooses to attack several rooming house operators who have been in compliance with City regulations for years.

I thought long and hard before deciding that there was no possibility of my sitting back and allowing others to fight the fight which certain City officials have imposed upon us. The five owners whose 11 houses are technically unlicensed are by no means unscrupulous persons out to pull something over on the City. We are committed to a legal and fair resolution of this issue. Two of us have already won our appeals before the Ohio Board of Building Appeals. We are all confident that justice will prevail and that soon we will be allowed to conduct our businesses as we have conscientiously done in the past.

The City misrepresents us when it says we are refusing to be inspected by the Code Administrator, Marshall Whitehead. Legal counsel puts it pretty well : 'Carol Graham... will permit, and has always been willing to permit you ( MW ) to inspect the rooming houses pursuant to the City of Oberlin code. Ms. Graham has welcomed these inspections for years as part of the standard rooming house licensing process."

The stand that I am taking regarding the so-called "serious hazard" inspection is a principled and ethical one. Such an inspection is illegal unless the City believes " that some condition exists at the rooming house which could constitute a hazard of certain or probable consequence to safety or health." To date, I have not been notified of any such hazard.

Thus, when Floyd Ramp suggests I may be fearful of further deficiencies being discovered (Oberlin News-Tribune, 24 March 1998) I reply, no way. My houses are safe in every respect, and immaculately maintained. I provide a service to the town and college in offering them as student housing, and of course I pay taxes on the income I receive.

Then follows the ultimate assault. Oberlin College President Nancy Dye tells us in a letter to the Oberlin Community (which, by the way, she did not bother to send to me) that no Oberlin student shall be permitted to live in one of my off campus rooming houses. This represents a considered and personal attack on my reputation and also on my only means of employment. Parents and students have been calling me with their concerns . You may be sure I am explaining to them the illegal and unethical positions of the City and the College.

- Carol B. Graham, Town resident

Value of smoke detectors is unquestionable

To the Editor:

Referring to the massive fire at 21 Morgan Street three weeks ago where two people died largely because there were no smoke detectors, rooming house owner David Sonner recently asked in the Review, "What in the G. D. Hell does that fire in a family dwelling have to do with fire safety?" Well, there's a classroom of fifth graders sitting next to a now empty desk over at Prospect Elementary School who would be very capable of answering that question for him.

-Robert DiSpirito, Oberlin City Manager and Dennis Kirin, Oberlin Fire Chief