Job Descriptions Changing for City’s Building Inspectors

The metaphoric wall between residential and commercial inspectors is coming down in Lakewood City Hall.

With the recent departure of two city building inspectors, officials are looking to make the positions a little more versatile moving forward.

The idea is to “cross-train” inspectors, giving them the skills to handle either type of inspection, said Dru Siley, the city’s director of building and housing. 

“Our goal is to send inspectors where the work is, and not just artificially divide them up,” said Siley. “There is a lot of commercial development going on right now and our housing strategy is moving forward, so we’re staying busy.”

Bob Apanasewicz, the city’s assistant building commissioner for commercial buildings, said that inspectors are already licensed to carry out inspections on all buildings, but the idea moving forward is to provide training where it’s needed.

“I think this will make us more efficient,” he said. “This way you can have a residential inspector who can do commercial inspections, and a commercial inspector who can do residential inspections.”

“I think it’s necessary.”

Both residential inspectors, Bill Wallrath recently retired and Walt Maynard accepted a post in Fairview Park as the assistant building commissioner. 

The city is currently interviewing for the positions.