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The Lapeer City Building Department began its operations Monday. Along with Darling, the building official, the staff includes office manager Patti Durr, part-time electrical inspector Bill Hyder, and part-time plumbing and mechanical inspector Bob Gerds.

"We've been anticipating this day for quite a while," said Darling, who was a plans examiner, building inspector and zoning administrator in Oxford for 20 years. "We're here to insure the health, safety and welfare of occupants inside their buildings."

The inspectors will review plans, issue permits, and perform electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and building inspections on all structures. Permit and inspection fees will widely range depending on the applicant, Darling said.

Residents will be able to fill out their applications on a computer inside the office, which will then be printed out and entered into office's database. Like the fees, the time frame to obtain a permit and inspection is completely up to the owner.

"We're going as automated as we can," said Darling, adding that future plans include to wirelessly transfer the information from the computer to the database.

A 24-hour hotline is also set up for residents to call and request for an inspection after 5 p.m. It can be reached at (810) 245-9622 seven days a week.

Darling added he would like to get a Web site up and running where residents can fill out and submit their application from home.

"This is a great benefit for the community," Hyder said. "We hope we can work well with the community."

Hyder has nearly 30 years of electrical experience, and also inspects for Orion Township and contracts in the electrical business. Gerds has more than 25 years in the mechanical and plumbing trade. He's also inspects in the city of Rochester and Oxford Township.

In February of 2007, the Lapeer City Commission took the first step in pursuing its own building authority by transferring $50,000 from the general fund to serve as seed money for the new development. The city had contracted with the Construction Code Authority, but decided to part ways citing its growth and need for more hands-on management of building site inspections and timely rental unit inspections.

Darling anticipates the building department will be on a self-sustaining budget.

"We're hoping we can provide a great service to the community, timely, and that people will feel comfortable," he said. "We want to be as user friendly as possible. We realize that in a lot of construction, time is money. We anticipate doing things very, very timely."

The Lapeer City Building Department will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at its office, located at 111 Howard St., between Court and Saginaw streets and adjacent to the Train Depot. It can be reached at (810) 245-9621 and by fax at (810) 245-1961.

Jeff Hoard can be reached at (810) 664-0811, Ext. 8127 or jeff.hoard@lapeergroup.com.