DATE: Wednesday, September 3, 1997          TAG: 9709030485

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONI GUAGENTI, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   73 lines

SOME HOTELS MISS DEADLINE FOR INSTALLING FIRE SPRINKLERS

As many as a dozen resort hotels still were striving Tuesday to equip their inns with fire sprinkler systems, working past a deadline that had expired Monday.

A fire marshal began inspecting the hotels Tuesday morning but the city refused to say which hotels remain in violation of a 1990 state law requiring the safety devices.

The law gave owners of hotels taller than three stories seven years to install the sprinklers, and the legislature granted a six-month extension last spring after Virginia Beach hotel owners lobbied for more time.

Of the original 33 Oceanfront inns that had to comply with the law, 12 were not in compliance as of Friday, according to a list compiled by the city's Permits and Inspections Office.

Ten of those hotels had secured the permits for the installation work and are at various stages of completing it, while two hotel owners haven't applied for permits, according to the list.

Violation notices will be issued to any of the properties that weren't in compliance Tuesday, said city Fire Marshal Melven R. Mathias.

Under the building code, the city is required to give businesses an additional seven days to comply with the law. In this case, the city will reinspect those properties Sept. 9, said Assistant City Attorney Vanessa Valldejuli.

Valldejuli said hotel owners not in compliance at that time will be issued another notice of violation. The following day, the city attorney's office will file a suit in Circuit Court seeking an injunction to close the properties until sprinklers are installed. A preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for Sept. 12, she said.

``Whether they will be closed or not will be up to the Circuit Court for the city of Virginia Beach,'' Valldejuli said.

Work at many of the original 33 hotels was completed before Memorial Day, when the busy tourist season began.

Those who didn't make the Labor Day deadline for completion are scrambling to avoid a possible shutdown of their businesses.

At least two innkeepers said Tuesday that they would be ready by Sept. 9 and that they were simply waiting to hook up their new systems.

Sunny Gandhi, manager of Murphy's Emerald Island Inn in the 1000 block of Pacific Ave., said the fire marshal paid him a visit Tuesday.

Gandhi said a pump has to be hooked up to the sprinklers, which already have been installed. He said the inn should be in compliance by next week's final deadline. Murphy's was sold in March without sprinklers, passing on the burden of installing a system to the new owners.

Ray Khushal, owner of five Oceanfront resort inns, four of which needed sprinkler systems, still has one business to retrofit - the Cerca Del Mar in the 400 block of 21st St.

Khushal needed a waiver from the city to extend a water main in the city's right of way to the sprinkler system. The waiver was granted last week.

A city spokeswoman said people aren't allowed to do work in the public right of way during the tourist season without a waiver.

Khushal said he hopes to be in compliance with the law ``within the next several days.''

Two others have chosen to shut down voluntarily until the work is done.

The Aloha Motel, in the 1500 block of Pacific Ave., closed Tuesday so the work could be done.

Carol Judd, Aloha's manager for the past seven years, said the rooms had been cleaned out and were ready for sprinkler installation.

She said the main problem has been coordinating a time for the work with Virginia Sprinkler Co. Inc.

According to the permits and inspection office's list, the Princess Anne Inn at 26th Street and the Oceanfront lacks a permit to install sprinklers, but owner Dawson Sterling said that he plans to raze the hotel and build a new one on the same site.

As of Friday, the list also showed the Quality Inn in the 2200 block of Atlantic Ave. as not having a permit to install the devices.

No one from that hotel could be reached for comment. KEYWORDS: HOTEL SPRINKLER

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