During the Blytheville Utilities meeting, the committee received a report from CWB project engineer Kyle Breckenridge about the water flow, specifically for fire prevention, on Division Street. Breckenridge stated that he was aware that the city was supposed to have two new buildings coming to the area in the future; the new Justice Complex and KIPP's new gym.
"Looking at what kind of fire flow you needed there, you know any commercial building depending on the square foot is going to have a minimum of 1,500 gallons per minute. It is based on the square footage of the building. If it is sprinklers you get a 75 percent reduction…I think both of those new buildings are going to be sprinklers…and either way you cut it 1,500 will cover those two fire flows, but that is a significant flow," Breckenridge said.
Breckenridge added that it can be difficult for any city to have adequate fire flow across the entire city for commercial building use. Breckenridge stated that any city in the state, you can find somewhere in the city where their system does not meet fire flow. Blytheville CFO John Callens stated that the system is also at a disadvantage because it is on the "outskirts" of the city. He stated that when the pipe was first laid in that area of Blytheville it was smaller pipe because at the time it was believed that the city would not progress further; however, since then the city has expanded farther and farther in that direction.
Breckenridge stated that they looked at what it would take to bring the system up to par, which would be to provide a large main size to that area. Breckenridge stated that their suggestion was to put a "parallel 12 inch down Elm Street and across to Byrum (Rd) and across to the KIPP school."
"The only thing to consider is, again this isn't cheap, the only thing to consider is do you want to look in the future and say, ‘Well, what kind of anticipated growth do we have in this area? Is 1,500 gallons a minute going to be sufficient for any anticipated fire flow that we could see out there or do we want to maybe look at what is the maximum fire flow that the college needs now and in the future if they build another building would they need 2,000 gallons a minute or 2,500 gallons a minute?'…There are some things to think about as far as spending this money on how prepared do you want to be for future growth or future fire flow needs in the area," Breckenridge said.
After more discussion, the committee motioned to allow Breckenridge to continue the study what would be sufficient for the area with the possibility of higher fire flow being necessary for the future. Breckenridge stated that he believes that it will be around two weeks before he is ready to update the committee again.
gwilliams@blythevillecourier.com