By COREY YOUNG – Petaluma Argus Courier

There won’t be any burning books on Kentucky Street if the new fire sprinklers at Copperfield’s work as expected — not that anyone wants to see them in action.

Just a few doors down from where a devastating fire broke out in 2002, the owners of the Copperfield’s Books building at 134 Kentucky St. have wrapped up a year-long project to install fire sprinklers in the basement and above the main floor.

The building’s owners are the first to retrofit their property with sprinklers in order to meet a looming deadline. Basements in buildings along certain stretches of Kentucky Street and Western Avenue must have sprinklers by the end of 2010, the City Council decided in 2004.

The original time frame was six years, but only 21⁄2 years remain — and property owners have been slow to start the work, city officials have said.

The Mattei family, which still owns the former Mattei Bros. department store building where Copperfield’s is now located, spent about $60,000 on the sprinkler project, Jim Mattei said.

About a quarter of that cost will be offset by a grant from the city redevelopment agency, Mattei estimated.

With the basement deadline approaching, “we figured we might as well get it all done at the same time,” he said. Being the first on the block means “I’m the guinea pig,” he added.

Overall, the project went well, said Mattei, and the system recently passed a final city inspection.

After the Copperfield’s sprinkler project, “There really aren’t any others in the queue,” Fire Marshal Michael Ginn said. “We’re putting a lot of information out there, but not getting a lot of feedback yet. I do have one building owner who is looking at it.”

The 2010 deadline applies to basements of buildings on the block of Kentucky Street between Western and Washington Street, and the portion of Western between Kentucky and the Boulevard.

About a third of those buildings have basements, Ginn said. The above-ground floors of those buildings must be fitted with sprinklers by the end of 2016.

Both sides of Petaluma Boulevard North, from Washington to B Street, must also install sprinklers, but the clock won’t start ticking until the city places a new water main along the Boulevard.

But that doesn’t mean all those properties have to wait, Ginn said. Properties that back up to American Alley could connect to a water main beneath the alleyway if their owners want to proceed, he said.

“If they want to voluntarily do something now, we can work with them on a case-by-case basis,” Ginn said.

The sprinkler grant program will provide up to $1 per square foot of each floor of a building, including the basement. That typically covers 25 to 35 percent of the cost, Ginn said.

In addition, a no-interest loan program is available to cover the remainder of the cost. The loan must be paid back in 10 years.

“There hasn’t been a significant rush for the money,” said Ginn, but he lauded Mattei for seeking the grant and completing the retrofit in time.

“He knew about it and I think he just decided to jump on it,” Ginn said. “They did the work without closing the store down — I admire them for that.”

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