Contracting for inspections

While the Town of Saratoga has been moving forward without a planning and zoning director, members of the Saratoga Town Council have been reviewing and approving building permits. Another aspect of that position, however, is performing building inspections and pressure checks.

At the October 13 meeting of the Saratoga Planning Commission, Councilmember D’Ron Campbell introduced Andrew Meyers, who has been contracted by the Town of Saratoga to perform building inspections. Following his introduction by Campbell, Meyers informed the rest of the planning commission and the public that he had performed residential inspections for close to 10 years.

“Most of the contractors that I speak with are just looking for some direction. They just want to do things right,” said Meyers. “They want to have a standard across the board and that’s all I want as well.”

“Some back history to this; when we walked into the zoning office there were no inspection checklists, per say, at all. I couldn’t find any,” said Campbell. “So, I called Andrew to see if he could help us out. He would like to work with us in developing an inspection process that follows how he is trained in international building code and that we have set out in the procedure book so that someone can walk in and say ‘This is what you need to do.’”

While Meyers was in attendance to be introduced, another individual being contracted by the Town of Saratoga was not. Campbell, however, informed the rest of the planning commission about Alex Dorsey.

“He’s a certified plumber who’s looking to expand. He works at Brush Creek (Ranch) but he’ll help us out because I was being called to do pressure checks on gas lines and I’m not qualified to do that, so (I) found someone who is and he has been called out for mechanicals on furnaces and things like that as well,” said Campbell. “So, he’ll be helping us out on that end.”

Both Meyers and Dorsey will be contracting with the Town of Saratoga until the governing body is able to fill the position of planning and zoning director, which has been advertised as part-time. The Town of Saratoga has been without a permanent planning and zoning director since the resignation of Dan Ferrin in March 2019.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Planning Commission will be at 5:30 p.m. on November 10 at Saratoga Town Hall.