Homes and other buildings that don’t stand up to structural codes are not only an eyesore, but they also can be very dangerous.
In order to address the issue, the City of Manitowoc created the Division of Life Safety after looking at a model employed by the City of La Crosse, as Fire Chief Todd Blaser told Seehafer News.
“The City of Manitowoc was coming out of a change and was looking for some efficiencies in the city government,” Blaser explained. “One thing we noticed was the City of Lacrosse had a program that they started with the building Inspection Department and the Fire Department. So we grabbed Mayor Nickels for a road trip along with some others and we went out to see that model, and decided it was a good opportunity to look at the housing stock in Manitowoc and fix some of the issues.”
Blaser said the program has been very successful so far and is continuing to make the City a safer place.
The Department is made up of civilian employees that consists of three credentialed inspectors, administrative assistant for support. Then, Blaser said, “a few years later we looked at trying to make it more proactive program rather than reactive, so we brought Scott Kiel along.”
Kiel assumed the position of Housing Coordinator, which means he is the one that takes all the citizen complaints.
Kiel said his typical day is anything but boring, as he receives calls on a variety of different issues, but said there is one complaint he gets the most.
“Probably the first and foremost one is garbage,” he said. “It is s never-ending battle with people not putting their garbage out, or getting it removed on a weekly basis, letting it pile up in their garage.”
If you have a housing concern you wish to report, you can do that by either calling 920-686-6940 or going to manitowoc.org/160/Property-Maintenance.
