Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Monday, April 19, 2010

Are You Up To Code & Compliance?









After a mini battle with Salisbury's Code & Compliance Office, 300 W. Main Street now has all of the windows painted as well as the numbers 300 clearly displayed.

However, right next door at the old Feldman's building, paint is chipping off the building, as are many of the other buildings Downtown, yet no violations or citations are being given out there that Salisbury News is aware of.

In neighboring residential areas grass is already overgrown on properties Code & Compliance is also very familiar with, yet I see no tags on their doors or property. Now mind you Folks, it's very easy for me to go around and take pictures of such properties and show they too are not compliant and we all know there's nowhere near the volume of Officers in that department to keep up with the demand. I am by no means trying to say Code & Compliance is doing a bad job because that just wouldn't be true.

It's simply a department that can truly be a pain in the butt and like any department of its kind, they can truly make life extremely difficult. In my case, they have an "internal moratorium" that can be offered to those they feel they choose to extend such a courtesy. I simply wasn't one of them. I explained how we had too much rain and you can't paint in the winter but that simply wasn't good enough.

As soon as the weather changed for the better we completed the work and hopefully we won't see them for quite a while. That is, unless they'd like to shake hands, go to lunch and have a good laugh about the whole thing. Somehow I doubt that's going to happen but I certainly welcome it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joe,
You own a beautiful building and keep it in great shape. This is nice to see in a city of great decline and run down properties. Code compliance seems to turn a blind eye to many of the offenders and routinely write citations to others. You dont have to drive far to see the poor conditions in town. Most properties never fix up or cut the grass for years. You cant tell me its not political and certain friends are not overlooked deliberately. At least your keeping a good property joe.

Anonymous said...

I made the comment on Sunday of how good your property looks. Then next door we have pealing paint, no roof, boarded up windows really a disgrace. Keep the thick skin Joe.

Anonymous said...

Grass citations will go out at the end of this month. It is not how tall your grass is, it is who you are not. Just join S.A.P.O.A. and your problems will go away.

Anonymous said...

you are now on their watch list . when some paint peals behind a shutter or behind a door,or under an eve, they will be there.You will be a repeat offender now.. Oh sinful you. This is the only place I have seen this happen.

Anonymous said...

The city inspector that is a real butt head looks like Ickabod Crane,
a skinny weasil looking guy. He thinks he's king crap. His job has gone to his head and he needs his a$$ kicked. I'm happy your building is up to par. The have a thing for you Joe , of course you know that already.

Anonymous said...

These are the kind of jobs that could be eliminated with no negative effects whatsoever. No one would complaine if some of the employees from this office were layed off. Every county and city have to many of these people on the payroll with not enough to do. When money gets tight some of these folks will be history, a positive result of the down turn in the economy.