By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

LAPLACE – The money for the new St. John building inspection mandate from the state appears to be on the horizon.

Kevin Bellanger, director of South Central Planning, reported to L’Observateur that the Department of Public Safety requested applications for a portion of the initial $3 million that is now available to parishes seeking to set up the building inspection program.

South Central Planning is the group which is handling the inspection process for St. John, and five other parishes, in a regional endeavor that will reduce the costs for contractors and individual homebuilders now forced to get the inspections done.

It was only a month ago when Bellanger said South Central was still awaiting money from the state to begin the system, and that it would take approximately $2 million to set things up.

That left smaller parishes such as St. John in a bind, since the cost for such a program was prohibitive. The regional plan has been the only way to reasonably satisfy the new state law, said St. John Director of Zoning and Planning Adrienne Labat.

But just this week, Bellanger said he had finalized the application for the South Central plan, and was expected to get final approval for their application after a conference call with the parishes involved on Thursday.

&#8220This is good news for sure,” Bellanger said. &#8220We expect to send our application in by Friday, and the money is supposed to be allotted by January 19. If that all happens, we expect to have the inspection program up and running within a week, since we’ve been getting everything ready all along.”

Bellanger said he was &#822090 percent certain” his group would get their initial request for $1.5 million, since the Department of Public Safety made it clear they are going to show preference to groups which are providing for many parishes at a time.

(SeeBUILDING,Page 2A)

Only one other group in the state is applying in a manner as South Central, with the Alexandria area having a four-parish system seeking funds as well.

Bellanger said the state has made an initial outlay of $8 million available to help parishes start the program, and there should be an additional $14 million coming in two to three months. Currently, $3 million is up for grabs.

&#8220This should get us going, and very soon at that,” Bellanger stated. &#8220This is the only way this inspection process can be handled by smaller parishes, but I think we are set up to make it work for this area. All we needed was the start-up money, and it now appears to be here.”

The Louisiana Legislature passed the state law in November, 2005 which mandates all parishes in the state have construction inspections for all phases of new building.

Some parishes in the state already were doing inspections, but many smaller parishes such as St. John were put in a bind since such a system is a large undertaking to set up. Not only are certified inspectors needed, but a computer system must also be established to support the system.

Labat said that St. John began in early 2006 getting ready for the system, but enlisted the help of South Central Planning to become part of a six-parish group.

&#8220The regional approach will help us make this work and run smoothly,” Labat said. &#8220And even though there will be a few glitches to get through at the beginning, I am sure we will work through it. The bottom line is that this should help ensure the quality of construction projects here, and that is a good thing.”

Bellanger said that St. Charles Parish, which originally planned to handle the inspections themselves, has contacted South Central about joining the regional group.

&#8220They were smart to start planning to handle it themselves, but now that they see we are going to be up and running, they have asked about possibly getting on board,” he confirmed.

Should everything go as well as Bellanger is hoping, the local inspection system could be up and running as early as February.