The Rio Blanco County Board of Commissioners (BoCC) held two special meetings last week: one Wednesday to make a decision about switching from the state plumbing board inspector to a local inspector, and a special meeting Friday for an executive session to discuss hiring a director for the county’s Department of Human Services.
The county moved to shift responsibility for plumbing inspections to the state less than three years ago on the recommendation of building department staff. State inspector Lucas Newman, who lives in Meeker but covers a multi-county area, responded last Wednesday to comments made in previous work sessions by local contractors, who expressed frustration with perceived delays getting inspections and re-inspections. “I make it a priority to get there [to an inspection] within a day,” Newman said.
The BoCC had discussed having the Town of Meeker’s building inspector, Carl Padilla, take over local inspections in the interim while County Building Inspector Matt Franks receives additional certifications.
Meeker Town Manager Mandi Etheridge, Mayor Kent Borchard and Padilla were present for the meeting. Padilla asked Newman if there was some possibility of confusion with contractors about which code version is being used. The plumbing code is uniform statewide, and has been since 2017. County Attorney Don Steerman said many smaller counties opted to use state inspectors after the law changed.
After more than an hour of discussion, commissioners voted unanimously to stay with the current process of plumbing inspections performed by Newman as the state inspector. Commissioner Ginny Love said she hopes the discussion will “get everyone over the hump” in terms of communication. Watch the entire meeting at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-WX-pCuDfw&t=185s
Friday’s meeting was limited to an executive session “to discuss personnel matters regarding the hiring of a DHS Director.”
The next meeting of the RBC BoCC will be Oct 11, 2022.
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What is the County Beat?
The Rio Blanco Herald Times makes a concerted effort to cover local government as part of our mission to inform citizens and hold power to account. The County Beat details discussion and action by the Rio Blanco County board of commissioners, who generally meet the second, third and fourth Tuesday of each month.
By NIKI TURNER – editor@editorht1885.com
