Beckley Fire Department to relaunch enforcement of certificates of occupancy
While commercial businesses in Beckley have long been required to have a Certificate of Occupancy, Beckley Fire Marshal Christopher R. Graham said the bureau is getting ready to 'begin actively enforcing' the city's code.
Graham has prepared a letter he is going to give business owners that explains why having an up-to-date Certificate of Occupancy is important. 'This effort is aimed at ensuring the health and safety of all individuals who live in or visit buildings open to the public,' states the letter.
'A lot of times, people just get busy. Life happens, and they've been [busy], it's not been, they've not gotten one,' Graham said. 'So we really want to try and go back and make sure, hey, everybody has one.'
Graham works in tandem with Capt. Donald Morgan in the city's Code Enforcement Department to ensure commercial buildings are safe.
Graham conducts inspections, but so does Morgan.
'Where I'm fire marshal, we will do an inspection, check if it needs a fire alarm or fire extinguishers, make sure the exit emergency lighting is ready,' Graham said.
Then, the baton is passed to Code Enforcement.
'Code Enforcement comes in and they make sure the building is structurally sound — the electrical, the plumbing, items like that — are correct,' Graham continued. 'So, it's kind of a team effort to make sure the buildings are safe before the public can go into them or they're occupied by employees.'
When asked if there was a recent incident in the city that sparked the new initiative, Graham said he wanted to remain positive.
By issuing the letter and conducting a fairly public campaign to inform commercial business owners, Graham said his hope is that people will come forward and ask for a free inspection from him and Morgan.
'We want to enforce it. We're going to give people time,' Graham said.
Graham said that if a safety issue is identified during an investigation, they can give the business owner enough time to correct the issue before issuing a citation.
'Then we say, hey, hold up. We need to address this before we can open,' he said. 'Our goal is not to shut anybody down or hinder anyone from having a business. But these items need to be checked to make sure that it's safe to open.'
However, in the event a business does not comply once a safety issue is identified regarding electrical, plumbing and structural components of a business, there is an enforcement component of Beckley City Code they can use. Fines for noncompliance run $10-$300.
'Now that part is new,' Graham said. 'And before we would just go and say, 'Hey, can you do this?' 'Hey, can you do this?' But now we can actually run it through court, and they can explain to the judge why they're not doing it, maybe, or something like that. And those are usually extreme circumstances.'
Graham said that 90-95% of the time, business owners comply because they have made such a huge investment and want to own and operate their business.
'After a reasonable correction period, if violations remain unresolved, a citation may be issued, requiring the owner or occupant to appear before the Municipal Court, where additional fines may be imposed,' states the letter.
But Graham said he hopes businesses come forward and few fines have to be levied. He also hopes his phone starts ringing so he can schedule more free business safety inspections and get more Certificates of Occupancy completed.
'Our goal is not to hurt anybody or cost them a lot of money,' Graham said. 'We just really want to make the building safe and bring them up to code.'
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