Mistakes in applying the town building code are haunting the Hagerstown Town Council, according to discussion during an Oct. 14 special meeting.
About a dozen residents of the Graceland Heights subdivision attended an Aug. 5 council meeting to ask why they had been without power for several days after a storm. Town officials said they had problems getting repair equipment to downed power lines because of buildings and trees located within electric easements.
Joe Favorite, the town electric utility lead, said then that the town had not enforced easement restrictions for years.
Part of the solution would be for residents to remove buildings and trees from the easements, town officials said.
Since then, a resident came to Town Hall and showed evidence that former building commissioner Bob Bullock had approved the location of his garage in an easement, Town Manager Chris LaMar said during the Oct. 14 meeting. The resident asked if the town would compensate him for removing the building.
Council member Donnie Benedict said the town might be at least partly liable for the former building commissioner’s acts. But, he warned, paying compensation for relocating the building might set a precedent if other residents also had been permitted to put sheds or buildings in the easements. In at least one case, a resident apparently had been allowed to put a building partly over a property line.
Benedict said Terry Ford, who replaced Bullock, had been trying to step up enforcement of the town’s building code, at the council’s direction. Ford became building commissioner on Jan. 1 and submitted his resignation on Oct. 7. He had sent notices of code violations to several property owners.
“We don’t want to lose momentum” on Ford’s work, Benedict said. He said at least one yard on South Elm Street has become an unsightly junkyard of parked vehicles that are never moved, and was critical of a downtown business for placing a trash dumpster over a sidewalk.
The town attorney has told the council that in order to enforce the unsafe buildings code, the town must set up a process for property owners to appeal the building commissioner’s citations. It’s never been done. Town Council would serve as an “unsafe buildings hearing authority.”
LaMar said his office at Town Hall appears to be in charge of issuing building permits until a new building commissioner is hired. The council took months to find and hire Ford during 2023 after Bullock let it be known that he would retire.
Ford had also been trying to enforce code that requires electrical work to be done by licensed contractors. In one case, he’d been called to a new home where an unlicensed contractor had incorrectly grounded the system. The electrical work shocked people and could have resulted in a fire.
Council agreed to advertise the vacant position. It’s been a part-time job. Council members said pay and hours would depend on the successful applicant’s previous experience.
In other business, council approved a fire protection contract with Jefferson Township during 2025. It’s an extension of the 2024 contract.
The council’s next regular meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4, in Town Hall, 49 E. College St. The public may attend.
A version of this article appeared in the October 23 2024 print edition of the Western Wayne News.