City creates new code division in fire department
Community risk reduction division working to make Forrest City safer
Changes are being made to the city’s code enforcement office.
The city position was recently moved into the Forrest City Fire Department where a new community risk reduction division was created to oversee the position.
This department now includes the city’s fire marshal and division chief Jeremy Sharp and new code enforcement officer and building inspector captain Chris Ray.
Forrest City Fire Chief Shane Dallas said Ray is currently attending classes to earn the licenses required to efficiently perform the job.
“Fire marshal Jeremy Sharp is heading up that division as the division chief,” said Dallas. “Also, what we have known as code enforcement over the years is being put into this division as captain Chris Ray is now in charge of building inspections and what we called code enforcement. They are going to be working hand-in-hand to do these jobs. Chief Sharp has been the backup for code enforcement for several years and he has all of the licenses to do the job. Captain Ray, in the first month of being on the job, has attended three of the four schools he needed to attend."
Dallas said residents and contractors will not see any changes with the process of purchasing construction permits.
“As far as the process that the citizens went through to obtain permits by going through city hall, that has not changed," said Dallas. "They will still go over there and do what they always have done. Captain Ray will still maintain an office over there, but most of his job will be outside the office. He will be out doing inspections and helping people."
According to Dallas, this new division will allow the fire department to have more information on the construction of buildings in cases of emergencies within certain locations.
"We are patterning this off of some other departments across the state and how they do this," said Dallas. "I feel like this is really effective. It is the newer way of dealing with code enforcement because things are migrating within the fire department as far as fire and building inspections. I think it is going to be a great fit for not only providing a service there, but on the fire side of it, we will have better pre-planning information and better information about the construction of buildings when we have an emergency at those locations. Every one of our trucks has a tablet and we have a records management system. Within that, we are able to pull up information on a building and see things we may need like contact information and other things about the structure."
Dallas also noted that because of changes that occur within code enforcement and building inspections, the agency also wants to focus on educating the public about the changes.
"When we are out doing these walkthroughs, our first mission is education," said Dallas. "Most people are not doing something out of code or a code violation intentionally. Most of the time it is because they don't know or because they do not think that it’s unsafe. We want to educate people on the codes.”
Sharp said he is excited about the new division and is happy to be working alongside Ray on this new venture.
"Over the next few months, people will see us out doing inspections and walkthroughs in the businesses in the area," said Sharp. "I am excited to get the ball rolling on this new division."
According to Dallas, the main goal for the division is keeping everyone in the community safer.
"We really want to be visual if they have any questions," said Dallas. "We want to be accessible to our people. If someone wants us to come do a walkthrough, we will, and we can tell them things they need to work on. We live here and this is our community and it is all about keeping everyone safe."
Ray said the goal is not to make things difficult on people, but to make sure things are done to code for the safety of the community.
"I just want to say thank you to everyone for the ability to do this job," said Ray. "I have been mirroring Chief Sharp for eight years now, basically, and have been assisting him with home and building inspections. I think it will be good for us to work together. There have been changes to codes since 2017 and those are the changes we will be going by. Some people just don't know, and that is where education comes into play. We don't want to be hard on anybody, we just want to make sure things are done right and accordingly and that they follow the ordinances we have here in Forrest City."