Darryl_N
New member
I'm in a low density rural county. 20k people, 7k of them in the county seat, the other 13k spread out across 1200 square miles.
Our building department is a disaster since the 30-year veteran building official retired last November. In January they hired a local electrical contractor who didn't have any experience or certification as a building official, but was related to a long-time influential local. The law allowed him to serve as the building official for up to two years while working toward certification.
The new guy was particularly unhelpful to owner-builders. He gave evasive non-answers to even basic questions and got paid to read codes. Soon after he started, he declared a moratorium on pole barns, of all things, due to some rather arcane technicality with electrical service equipment elevation in a flood zone, which he apparently didn't fully understand, and which turns out was not actually a problem in practice or at law. The public outcry was strong, the county commissioners got pressured, and the county admin had no choice but to cut him loose.
At this point, they have a building official on loan from an adjacent county a few days a week, until they can find a qualified permanent person. The guy is knowledgable and well experienced, but IMO seems a bit overworked and stressed out. Maybe more than a little.
Well, that's enough news from Hooterville.
As far as my intro on GJ, I am here because I'm building a 24 x 70 x 12h metal garage and planning to do the electrical myself. I have some background (dad was an electrician and GC and I helped, plus worked as electrician's helper back in the late 1970s), but my state just adopted 2020 NEC and it's a lot to get my head around.
Our building department is a disaster since the 30-year veteran building official retired last November. In January they hired a local electrical contractor who didn't have any experience or certification as a building official, but was related to a long-time influential local. The law allowed him to serve as the building official for up to two years while working toward certification.
The new guy was particularly unhelpful to owner-builders. He gave evasive non-answers to even basic questions and got paid to read codes. Soon after he started, he declared a moratorium on pole barns, of all things, due to some rather arcane technicality with electrical service equipment elevation in a flood zone, which he apparently didn't fully understand, and which turns out was not actually a problem in practice or at law. The public outcry was strong, the county commissioners got pressured, and the county admin had no choice but to cut him loose.
At this point, they have a building official on loan from an adjacent county a few days a week, until they can find a qualified permanent person. The guy is knowledgable and well experienced, but IMO seems a bit overworked and stressed out. Maybe more than a little.
Well, that's enough news from Hooterville.
As far as my intro on GJ, I am here because I'm building a 24 x 70 x 12h metal garage and planning to do the electrical myself. I have some background (dad was an electrician and GC and I helped, plus worked as electrician's helper back in the late 1970s), but my state just adopted 2020 NEC and it's a lot to get my head around.
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