Sprinkler talk fires up City Council

Santa Fe Cafe owner says he will install system only if he is able to renew his lease

Sante Fe is located at 4410 Knox Road.

Mayor Stephen Brayman said that if the sprinklers are not installed by the Aug. 6 council work session, the city will file a contract dispute with the Circuit Court. The property use agreement between Santa Fe and the city states that Srour was to install a system by March 25, 2006.

‘‘I just don’t see spending $80,000 or $90,000 on a building I won’t be at,” Srour said during the work session. ‘‘If you want to take it to the next level, we’ll take it there, but I’ll be gone by then. My intent is to get a new lease by Tuesday. I am very happy to install a sprinkler system if [the landlord] and I can come to an agreement on a new lease.”

Srour told the council that he would move forward with the installation as soon as the lease was renewed.

‘‘It’s very easy,” he told the council. ‘‘If I get an agreement, I’ll put it in in August. I don’t want to go into circles here. If ya’ll want to pursue legal action, pursue legal action. That is black and white.”

Brayman said that the city will file a complaint regardless of whether a lease agreement is reached.

‘‘We had an agreement that within three years, a sprinkler system would be installed,” he said. ‘‘We’re over two years past that date, and they still haven’t been installed. My sense is something needs to make or break on this.”

Srour said he has an agreement in place with Strickland Fire Protection to provide the system, and that the two- to four-week installation process can be finished by the beginning of September, should he renew his lease.

Councilman Patrick Wojahn (Dist.1) asked why Srour is using the upcoming lease renewal as a reason to delay installation when he was first notified in 2003.

‘‘Why this hold up all this time?” he said. ‘‘I assume you knew this whole time your lease would have been up for renewal. Part of the cost of doing business is complying with the law. Now you’re asking us to let you go for a little while longer, even though we’ve been letting you go this whole time.”

Srour said he was one of three owners of Santa Fe in 2003, and the decision was not entirely his. He is now the solitary owner.

He also issued an apology to the council for dragging out the issue for so long.

‘‘I do want to apologize to you all about the last five or six years,” he said. ‘‘My intent is not to go against the city. I would love to have done this three or four years ago.”

Srour said that installation of the system would not shut down business and the sprinklers would connect to a pipe running along Knox Road.

E-mail Jonah Schuman at jschuman@gazette.net.