BRADENTON BEACH – The team of 20 state inspectors of hurricane-damaged properties is expected to be finished with their assessments this week, and the city’s inspector is asking for help replacing them with at least one inspector.
“It is a slow, arduous process. The inspectors promised both Chief (John Cosby) and I this morning that they would be finished with their work at the end of the first week of December,” Building Official Darin Cushing said at a Nov. 21 city commission meeting. “They’re doing every single building in the city, whether it’s elevated houses that probably got very little damage all the way down to some that are destroyed.”
Cushing asked the city to approve retaining another inspector to assist him when they leave.
“There’s me and one helper,” he said. “I’m going to request the commission to up the contract you have with our company to get an inspector here to help me, because I need somebody to just go do inspections while I can do all the administrative work.”
Cushing will be evaluating properties based on the FEMA 50% rule, which states that the cost to repair hurricane-related damage to a structure must fall below 50% of the structure’s value or it must come into compliance with current FEMA regulations.
“Ultimately if you know and you feel like you’re pretty sure you’re not anywhere near close to 50% of the value of your structure, just give me a call and I will come by,” Cushing said. “I will personally look at it, give you a thumbs up, and either say keep going or we better wait until these numbers come in. I don’t want people to throw good money after bad by doing a bunch of work to the house and then find out you’re over 50% and have to elevate.”
Cushing said every property’s FEMA-appraised value is posted ,on the Manatee County Property Appraiser’s website.
“It’s written in red right in the front. They did this because they know everybody in the county is going through a similar situation,” he said. “That’s the number we use as floodplain managers to make our determination.”
Using the example of a structure with a value of $500,000, he said the repairs can be up to $250,000 without triggering the 50% rule.
“I don’t think it’s going to cost anybody in this entire city $250,000 to fix what they have,” Cushing said. “There’s some that are going to be close, but I feel confident after all the driving around, all the looking, all the going inside and all the climbing over debris that I’ve done over the last month and a half, there’s not going to be a huge number of those.”
Cushing said permits are not required for replacing drywall, flooring and baseboards, but permits are required for electrical, plumbing and structural replacement of floors and walls.
“If you have things that need permitting, turn permit applications in and I’ll come take a look,” he said. “I want people to get stuff back together.”
He said the city is turning permits around every day.
“We’ve already done a second run of those folks who were on an early part of those inspections and we’re trying to do more and more every day,” Cushing said.
“Darin asked for another inspector,” Cosby said. “Let’s get that on the agenda for next Wednesday’s emergency meeting so we can get this moving along.”
The following guidelines pertaining to residential homes, but not condos or commercial buildings, were posted on the City of Bradenton Beach Building Department Facebook page:
“You can replace your drywall if it did NOT go over your electrical outlets. (You do NOT need a permit for this). If it went over the electrical outlets then you need an electrician to do an inspection, to see if you need electrical work performed. If you need electrical work completed, you will need a permit for the electrical work. If the electrician says your electrical outlets are safe, you can then put your drywall back in (You do NOT need a permit for this).”
