In a meeting geared to work out kinks and approve modifications to the city of Vicksburg’s wish list for existing day care centers to bring them closer to regulations required for new ones, operators agreed Thursday to a key revision and set deadlines for compliance.

Day cares that were licensed before Oct. 1, 2006, will be free to have &#8220any acceptable method” of smoke detection system other than multistation smoke detectors if they operate less than 24 hours a day, provided it is approved by city building inspectors and the Vicksburg Fire Department.

Members of an ad hoc committee of child care providers were agreeable to the change after hearing from Permy Thuha, director of Buttons and Bows Inc. on Main Street. That center has a wireless security system that also functions as an alarm for fires, Thuha said. He said installation cost $2,500.

Each center that operates 24 hours is still to have an exterior door approved by the city. At the suggestion of Leslie Decareaux, investigator with the Vicksburg Fire Department, 24-hour businesses, such as Buttons and Bows, may simply move their infants to rooms already outfitted with exit doors.

The city’s other all-hours day cares are Cradle to Crayons and Lovie’s Day Care.

Building inspections director Victor Gray-Lewis emphasized keeping whatever system the committee approved &#8220proactive and not reactive,” adding that pull-station systems were inadequate compared to either smoke detectors or multifunction burglar alarm systems that double as fire alarms.

Buildings that house day cares that are older, wood-framed structures would be deemed &#8220combustible” and will have to install the smoke detectors or enhanced burglar alarms, plus emergency lighting and upgrade existing doors with either crash bars or simple turn-latches.

Day cares must bring their facilities up to that standard by Jan. 1, 2008, with Gray-Lewis’ revisions on alternate fire detection systems due for presentation to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen by Jan. 10.

Committee members in attendance were Daphne Bagley, Melanie Allen, the Rev. Tommy Miller, Sonny Jones, Clarence Latham, Gail Albert, Lovie Bailey and Danielle Warnock.

Gray-Lewis agreed to the committee’s adopting an Oct. 1 date for defining what an existing day care is. Cassandra and William Kelly, the new owners of Cradle to Crayons on Drummond Street, licensed by the city Oct. 16, have said the city’s insistence they follow new, tougher regulations is unfair compared to the accommodating stance toward existing day cares.

New facilities must install exit doors in each classroom, upgraded vent hoods for cooking and a sprinkler system that is usually more expensive than smoke detectors. Neither was in attendance Thursday, however.

The Mississippi Department of Health issues licenses to day cares statewide and conducts inspections yearly for operators to renew them. Licensing fees are based on enrollment, ranging from $50 for those with 12 or fewer children up to $200 for those with 76 or more children.

The department lists 38 licensed in Warren County, with 32 within city limits. Six operate outside city limits and are unaffected by the effort, as Warren County has no building inspection code or zoning in place.

According to MDH, 2,519 children are enrolled in Warren County as a whole, under capacity for licensed facilities by more than 500. The department does not keep a separate enrollment count for municipalities.

The Vicksburg Fire Department inspects city businesses for working smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, feasible evacuation routes and building exit doors. The code adopted in 2003 asks that those doors are in each room where there are children.