Middletown committee presses staff to rewrite nuisance-alarm ordinance to include tenant responsibility

The Middletown Public Safety Committee on Tuesday advanced work on a proposed nuisance-alarm ordinance, asking staff to prepare a third draft that adds explicit language about landlord/operator and tenant responsibility and clarifies who may authorize enforcement.

Committee members, fire officials and staff framed the issue as one of public-safety resources and repeat false calls. Chief Brady told the committee that several Middletown properties have generated repeated alarms — singling out 29 Center Street, which he said triggered the system 49 times in 10 months — and that many of the incidents stem from people smoking or vaping inside private spaces that set off hardwired building alarms. "We're responding [with] million-dollar fire trucks for smoking," Chief Brady said, noting the strain repeated responses place on equipment and…