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Williamstown discusses hiring full-time building inspector

WILLIAMSTOWN — Whether or not a building inspector is needed for the city was discussed during the Williamstown City Council meeting Tuesday.

Mayor Jean Ford said a commissioner to enforce a city building code may be needed in the future,

“We need to discuss a building commissioner,” she said. “As of right now we do not have what we could call a full-fledged building commissioner.”

Councilman Marty Seufer said the city does not have a building code of its own and as a result, the city follows the state building code.

“If you build in the city of Williamstown you have to build to state code but we haven’t adopted that,” he said. “If we were to adopt that, we would need someone certified to enforce that code.”

Seufer said in West Virginia a certified building contractor is required to build to state code to keep up certification.

“Right now we determine you are a certified West Virginia contractor or you are an individual doing your own thing,” he said.

Seufer said adopting a code, and enforcing it, could cost the city a lot of money in the future.

“I don’t know what it would hurt to put an ad out there to see if there are any certified inspectors out there and do it for what price,” he said. “From there we could go down that road or continue as we are.”

Ford asked if other cities in the state would be willing to share an inspector. Seufer said the answer would probably be no.

“If you talk to Vienna you would find out it is pretty expensive,” he said. “We may be able to get someone to contract with us instead of being an employee.

“We should work that ad to leave it open to if it would be full time or as needed.”

Seufer said they would have to make sure they specify certified in the West Virginia building code.

City attorney Blaine Myers said the ad should be a request for qualifications rather than a bid specification.

“At this point we don’t know what our specifications would be,” he said.

Seufer said they may not get any replies.

“I’m not certain we need it,” he said. “If you require people to get a building permit they have either a state-licensed contractor or they are doing the work themselves and they would be required to build to the state code.”

Myers said the city should check with similar sized cities to see how they are dealing with building codes, inspectors and what it costs them.

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