Oct. 05--NORMAL -- Life-safety issues have thwarted this year's long-running Clinton haunted house and attempts to bring back the Bloomington-Normal Jaycees haunted house.
After 19 years, the Clinton Chamber of Commerce's most profitable and dependable yearly fundraiser, "Terror on Washington Street," has been canceled after an inspection by the state fire marshal revealed a $60,000 sprinkler system was needed at the location, 513 E. Washington St.
"We knew about the safety guidelines, but we thought we had taken the proper measures with extinguishers, emergency lights, heat detectors and walkie-talkies," said Executive Director Marian Brisard. "We're quite high-tech for a low-budget house. We even have an on-duty officer from the police department there to speed any emergency calls."
Meanwhile, the lack of ceiling tiles in an unused portion of the YouthBuild facility at Crossroads Center will prevent the Bloomington-Normal Jaycees from using that space for a haunted house.
The Jaycees have not organized a haunted house for about a decade.
Scot Williams, assistant director and commercial building inspector for Normal, said ceiling tiles are needed for a sprinkler system to operate correctly. The tiles deflect heat from a fire into the sprinkler heads to help trigger them.
The space had ceiling tiles when YouthBuild purchased it years ago, but they were removed after becoming moldy from water damage, Williams said. Because the space currently is not being used by YouthBuild, the inspections department and Normal Fire Department allowed YouthBuild to temporarily put ceiling tiles only around each sprinkler head. The bulk of the ceiling is without tiles.
Williams said YouthBuild officials previously were told all the ceiling tiles would have to be in place before the space was occupied. The Jaycees were not aware of that requirement until last week.
The only other option would be to retrofit the sprinklers so they are turned up, Williams said. Both options are costly.
Williams said the town had worked with the Jaycees to ensure they met other stringent life-safety measures that would be required for the space to be used as a haunted house.
"We would rather deliver a quality product than to rush," said Tony Brown, a Jaycee who also works at YouthBuild. "We decided to cancel this year and start planning for next year."
The Clinton Chamber of Commerce also hopes to bring back its haunted house next year -- even if it means tearing down the current building.
"I hope that we can tear this building down and build a new one, but that's a big 'if.' There are no other buildings in Clinton that have sprinklers we could lease or purchase," Brisard said.
Copyright 2013 - The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.
