The committee also discussed new laws concerning inspections of day care and foster care facilities.

Fire departments now are required to send a representative to a 4-hour training session about fire inspections and, without permission, cannot conduct the inspections without completing the training session.

Wilson said Austin is one of the few communities in the state that has always inspected day cares and foster care homes and has always done them for free. "If the state does them, they charge $50 to inspect and then $50 for a follow-up inspection … (and) they take three months to do it," Wilson said. "Day cares and foster care facilities like that the local fire department can do the inspections because we can do them within a week and they can get their licenses faster."

The Fire Committee agreed it would be worthwhile to send someone from the AFD to the training session and that they wanted Wilson to obtain permission from the State Fire Marshal's office so the department can continue the inspections in the meantime. The possibility of charging facilities for the inspections will be passed on to the Finance Committee for discussion.

Amanda L. Rohde can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at :mailto:amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com