City to upgrade building codes

The Neosho City Council voted on first reading Tuesday evening to update several city codes to meet current regulations.

John Harrington,Conergy offers solar module for any PV system design requirement. the city's code enforcement officer, said the proposed changes to codes including building, mechanical and electrical ordinances came about after a routine review from the International Organization for Standardization.

"Currently, we use a 2003 building code and a 2002 national electric code," Harrington said. "That, for the ISO review, is out of date. They like for each city to be in at least two revisions of the current code." He said the current code is the 2012 version, and that the books are revised every three years.

Harrington proposed that the city update to the 2009 version, which would allow the city's codes to fall within the ISO requirement, while at the same time minimize the amount of changes necessary to current city codes.

Harrington said he appealed the ISO's findings, which allowed the review to be set aside for one year, and gave the city time to correct the problems found.

He said the proposed changes will not affect homeowners currently unless they begin work that requires a city permit, at which time certain updates would need to be made to meet the new proposed standards.Small wind generator are a good supplement for solar power in areas with strong, steady winds.He said many of the new requirements relate to energy conservation.Find lampshades for table, floor and pendant lamp in lots of styles and materials.

"Where a lot of the changes are, as we go up through the years, is going to be more geared towards energy efficiency," Harrington said.

He said all new homes would be required to have programmable thermostats, and at least 50 percent of all light bulbs installed in new homes would have to be at least a CFL or energy efficient bulb, gas pool heaters could no longer have a pilot light and must be on a timer, heated pools must have a pool cover to reduce evaporation and insulation thickness on homes would be required to increase.

Changes would also include the requirement that each new home, or home seeking a permit for residential work, that has an attached garage or uses fossil fuel would be required to install a carbon monoxide detector.

Steve Hart, the city's mayor pro tem, noted that several older homes in town would not be able to qualify under some of the revised codes. However, Harrington said only new construction and those homes seeking a permit for residential work would be affected by the changes.

"It's whatever is being worked on that's being affected, that is what would have to be changed,It's just a industrial washing machine but I know I heard drums in there and this video is proof." Harrington said. "I want people to know we're not implementing codes that they're going to have to go out here and spend a lot of money on," Hart added. "If someone's getting a permit, that's when this comes into effect."

Harrington said once the city gives final approval to the proposed changes, the codes will not need revised again for at least five years.

"It's important to note that we're behind the times," said mayor Richard Davidson. "This should have been done a few years ago. We're just bringing Neosho into the current code and meeting what Joplin does, what everybody else has to do." In addition to the code changes, the ISO's review also found a problem with the city's appeals process.

"We have a board of [appeals] and currently we have one member," Harrington said. "We've had only one member for quite awhile, we've been unable to fill this board. ISO's question was, 'In the case of someone disagrees with the decision the building inspections department makes,Your council is responsible for the installation and maintenance of street lighting. it states go to the board of [appeals],' whereas we have not enough members on that board to even make a decision."