January 27, 2007: Vol. 30, No. 4
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del.icio.usPark Slope’s child-friendly Powerplay gym is still closed — but this time, it’s through no fault of the building’s owner.
Fire Department inspectors were supposed to tour the indoor gym with their Buildings Department counterparts on Wednesday to determine how to bring the property up to code, but when Buildings inspectors didn’t show up on time, the FDNY bailed, according to the gym’s co-owner, Fritz Jean.
“We’re in a holding pattern,” Jean told The Brooklyn Paper. “We are still wrapped up in bureaucratic red tape. This is really nerve-racking, and costly.”
The gym — which is typically filled with dozens of screaming, playing kids — was shuttered by the FDNY on Jan. 11 after an inspection that was described as routine revealed that the building needed better fire-safety measures.
Jean is still unsure exactly that means.
“We’re still trying to get clarification,” he said.
He’s not the only one confused.
A spokesman for the FDNY would only speak in generalities.
“They had no secondary means of egress, or they had no sprinkler system,” said Jim Long, an agency spokesman. “Because of the configuration of the building, they may be required to have both.
“It’s all about life and safety, believe you me,” added Long.
Meanwhile, the Buildings Department says it doesn’t have a certificate of occupancy for the building, which would mean that the gym had been operating under the radar all along.
Jean denied it: “We do have a certificate of occupancy. The [city’s] right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”
Jean said he should know by the middle of next week exactly when Park Slope’s kids will be able to get back to tumbling — and their moms and dads can stop worrying about the fire exits.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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