The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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January 9, 2008

New inspectors, new certification

By Brian Ojanpa

MANKATO — North Mankato building inspector Bruce Royer gives the new furnace-inspection law a thumbs up. Ditto for his St. Peter counterpart, Dean Busse.

“I’m a firm believer that everything that furthers our cause is good,” Busse said of Minnesota legislation aimed at increasing competency levels of municipal building inspectors.

The Legislature last year passed a law requiring that newly hired inspectors be required to have national competency certification to ensure that furnace installations are up to code.

The impetus for the legislation came after a 17-year-old North Branch youth died in his family’s home of carbon monoxide poisoning due to faulty installation of a direct-vent boiler.

The contractor erred by incompletely hooking up its combustion ducts, and a city inspector had signed off on the work.

Busse said the new law, as positive as it is, could be augmented even further by holding heating contractors to licensure standards as well.

“Right now, anyone who can bend tin can be a heating contractor,” said Busse, who thinks requiring such contractors to adhere to certification standards a la electrician and plumbers would eliminate the “weekend warrior — the guy doing this work for a buddy.”

Shawn Wenner, owner of Mankato Plumbing & Heating, said he’d welcome any new legislation affecting heating contractor certification.

Meantime, Wenner said the building-inspector legislation should shore up safety standards that contractors already have in place.

“We try to do as good a job as possible, but it’s always good to have a second set of eyes” on a project, he said.

Today’s sophisticated furnace technologies make that especially true, he said.

And even with modern heating systems equipped with myriad safety features to guard against monoxide issues, he recommends owners of airtight new-built homes to install monoxide detectors.

The law as written requires only newly hired municipal inspectors to acquire certification; it does not apply to those already employed, or to those in rural communities that haven’t adopted the state building code.

Royer said those exemptions might suggest a flaw in the law, but if an inspector is well-qualified in the first place, further certification could be unnecessary.

“In all honesty, it depends on the guy’s background. In my case it probably doesn’t matter because I’m a licensed certified building official.”

But if an inspector — even a veteran one — doesn’t have that type of background, Royer said certification requirements would be in order.

Busse said he and his fellow inspector for the city of St. Peter attend classes on an ongoing basis to maintain inspection standards and would voluntarily go through any new licensure certification, even though they aren’t required to.

Carbon monoxide detectors wil be required by law

By August, carbon monoxide detectors must be installed within 10 feet of each bedroom in every Minnesota home, and in many apartments by August 2009.

The new state law was enacted in 2007. Safety advocates said detectors could save 100 lives a year in the state and spare others from monoxide-caused illnesses.

Alarms typically cost between $20 and $50.

Alarms are designed to sound an alarm when carbon monoxide levels become life-threatening.

Higher-priced monitors provide information about low levels of the odorless, colorless gas, and sound alarms at life-threatening levels.

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