By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

LAPLACE – The regional building inspection program for new construction, as mandated by the state January 1, continues to move towards implementation, but not without some bumps in the road.

Ever since the Louisiana Legislature passed a law which will require extensive building construction inspections throughout the state as of January 1, 2007, parishes have scrambled to come up with a system to handle the order.

In the River Region, it initially looked like six parishes would be part of a South Central Planning cooperative, however a holdup in state funds for implementation kept things from making the January 1 deadline.

That obstacle was passed recently when South Central Planning was granted $870,000 from the Department of Public Safety for startup funds. However there were some surprises at the grant award meeting, when Director Kevin Bellanger said he suddenly saw St. Charles Parish apparently dropping out of his group.

&#8220I was surprised at the grant meeting when we saw for the first time that St. Charles Parish had decided to submit their own bid for some of the money,” he said.

The end result was that St. Charles got $192,000 for their own program, and another surprise bid from an unnamed St. John Parish individual took $300,000 more from the $1.5 million Bellanger had sought for South Central Planning.

&#8220We ended up getting $870,000, which is enough to get started, but we were surprised by the new people submitting bids at the meeting. Quite honestly, it would have helped if we had known St. Charles was pulling out and it made us look kind of stupid.”

&#8220We’re OK with St. Charles doing that, and I’m glad to see they’re trying to handle this on their own, but for those of us involved in the process, it was kind of embarrassing not to know they were going to do that,” he added.

St. Charles Parish Director of Planning and Zoning Mike Henderson said that his parish had never fully committed to the group, and had to protect itself to be sure they had funds for the inspections.

&#8220Mr. Bellanger had an entire year to have cooperative agreements from all Parish Councils, and he never got one from St. Charles, so we had to make sure we protected ourselves,” he noted. &#8220My concern was that we had no agreement, and regardless what I had said, I do not have the authority to put St. Charles in the group. Honestly we were a little disappointed Kevin wasn’t able to get it done by the time we went for the bid money.”

Still, Henderson said the fact that St. Charles got some grant money does not mean they won’t end up in the South Central group.

&#8220We may still end up with them,” he added. &#8220But at this point, we had no option but to make sure we got some funds for ourselves to make sure this works for now.”

At this time, Bellanger says that he has a cooperative agreement signed from St. John, Assumption and St. James parishes, with Lafourche and Terrebonne expected to also be on board.

He also plans to go back to the Department of Public Safety and try to get the $300,000 added back to his group, since St. John Parish has signed on with his organization.

&#8220We still don’t know who submitted the bid for St. John,” he said.

All parishes are now under the mandate to have inspections for new construction from permits granted after January 1. Henderson said St. Charles has contracted for three months with a third party to do the inspections until they get their system started.

Bellanger is putting the computer system in place and beginning to train inspectors. He said the regional group is proposing a cost of 46 cents a square foot for residential construction, and 60 cents a square foot for commercial construction. Henderson said that St. Charles is planning on charging 60 cents a square foot for residential, while they will use the state Fire Marshal’s contract price for commercial.

Both Henderson and Bellanger said the goal is to eventually get permit fees taken in by the parish to pay for the system, but for now, they will need more grant money to get started.

&#8220There is another $14 million that will be eligible from FEMA by March and we hope to get some of that money,” Bellanger said.

South Central expects to be operational with the new system by March 1, while Henderson said he hopes to be ready no later than April 1.