So long as the homeless shelterâs owner takes steps necessary to prevent an electrical fire from breaking out, Johnson City will not reissue an order to disconnect power at the Haven of Mercy.
Johnson City Development Services Director Preston Mitchell said the cityâs chief building official, Jeff Canon, ordered electricity shut off last Friday after a licensed electrician, who the shelter hired to replace an electrical panel in the buildingâs annex, noticed that the panelâs main breaker was burnt. The city learned about the issues on Thursday afternoon.
The burns on the main breaker, Mitchell said, created a serious electrical hazard at the shelter. Additionally, plans had not been submitted to the city and permits had not been issued for the work.
Johnson City provided little new information Monday about why it attempted to shut off power at the Haven of Mercy homeless shelter last Friday.
The city did provide a copy of an order issued by Chief Building Official Jeff Canon, which repeats a section of city code that states the chief building official has the authority to disconnect power and other utilities if they pose a danger to inhabitants.
The order asks that service be disconnected from the property, located at 123 W. Millard St., until itâs cleared by a city inspector.
Reached Monday afternoon, Canon directed a Johnson City Press reporter to the cityâs media relations department.
Johnson City has hired a Knoxville attorney to investigate an official complaint against City Manager Pete Peterson by a fire department employee.
Fire prevention officer Roger Davis says Peterson threatened his employment after he looped a state official in on a conversation about housing homeless people with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at the Ashe Street Courthouse.
In his complaint, which the Johnson City Press obtained through a public records request, Davis said Peterson sent emails âdirectly berating me and threatening my current and future employment with the city.â
âThis is a temporary use meeting an extraordinary circumstance created by the COVID pandemic,â Peterson said in an Aug. 15 email to Davis, Fire Chief James Stables and staff in the planning department. âThere are very limited options for housing homeless positive patients. We need to make this work with minimal changes, if any are needed. We DO NOT NEED TO GET THE STATE FIRE MARSHAL