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WNIJ's summary of news items around our state.

Sycamore City Council Passes New Elevator Dimension Regulations

Flickr user Gerry Lauzon / "Pulling out the stretcher" (CC v. 2.0)

Elevators in new structures built in Sycamore have to be wide enough to fit a two-foot by seven-foot ambulance stretcher in the laying-down position.

The Sycamore city council voted unanimously to pass the new elevator building regulation last week. The ordinance is effective immediately.

Sycamore Mayor Curt Lang says the regulations would only apply to future buildings that are two stories tall or higher. Older buildings are not required to comply.

“It was kind of a proactive thing with the recommendation of our fire department on what they had seen and other municipalities,” Lang said.

Those fire department recommendations included the effectiveness of giving CPR with the new regulations.

Lang says the new elevator rules would cost builders less than $20,000 to adhere to. He says it would cost more than $100,000 for current buildings to retrofit their elevators to the new regulations.

But Lang says money wasn’t the main concern for the council.

“You can’t, I don’t think, put a price on safety,” Lang said.

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