by Trish Rudder
A special meeting about building codes enforcement will be held in the Town of Bath on Monday, November 16 at 4 p.m.
In the November 3 Bath Town Council meeting, Mayor Scott Merki said he will meet with the building code enforcement agency members at Town Hall or they will attend online, and it will be a public meeting accessible through Zoom. An access code is available through the Bath town hall.
Town Recorder Susan Webster said the members that Merki appointed to the agency are Randy Watson, who is a partner with Thrasher Engineering, and will serve in the “at large” position; Jeff Gola, also with Thrasher Engineering will serve as the engineer/inspector; Bill Kearns, administrator with the Morgan County Health Department and James Steiner, Chief Deputy of the Berkeley Springs Volunteer Fire Department.
An unsafe structures ordinance was passed by the town on April 16, 2019. That ordinance set up a enforcement agency consisting of “the mayor, the municipal engineer or building inspector and one member at large, to be selected by and to serve at the will and pleasure of the mayor, and the ranking health officer and fire chief who shall serve as ex officio members of the enforcement agency.”
Webster is not part of this enforcement agency, but she expects they would need to establish exactly what they are going to do and set up systems to function.
“This is their first meeting,” Webster said.