If the shoe fits

This Community was right to give this Shoe Merchant
The Boot?

By Nick Markowitz Jr.

A Foodland Super Market unfortunately goes bankrupt and the building sits empty for several months when a company which sells shoes at a discount and supposedly has 40 established stores comes by and decides to lease the building for a new shoe warehouse outlet. At the preliminary meeting with building officials they outline what they want to do including significant interior work and the township tells them what all permits and building plans etc will have to be submitted. Including a complete set of construction documents which includes a set of plans showing all interior work a plan which shows how the existing sprinkler system will properly cover the new work and exterior landscaping and disabilities compliance.
The merchant then sends a crew in to start demolition work but unknown to the township the contractor is doing a lot more than just knocking out walls he is building new interior walls doing significant plumbing and wiring work and already putting in shelving and starting to stock them .
When the towns Fire Marshal decides to stop in and check on the progress of the interior demolition he is shocked to find they are nearly ready to open and they have not filed one plan or permit .He immediately issues a stop work order and stops the delivery of more shoes into the store. The store owner angry over the whole matter gets mad and starts yelling to the local press about how he has never had to file plans etc. at any of the other stores he has built and opened and feels he is being picked on. My reply of course to him is where exactly did you open these stores because it was not in Pa or the surrounding states as they all have building codes in place and if you did open stores without permits and plans shame on the community which allowed the construction to be done and did not follow the codes because you have placed your community and its officials into very deep complications including civil and criminal actions should something go wrong in those stores. The Uniform Construction Code or UCC as it is known was put in place specifically to prevent people just putting up what ever they feel like and endangering the public and I applaud this community near me for enforcing the UCC and protecting its citizens Proper code enforcement is essential to prevent major tragedies we need only look back to 2003 when 100 people lost there lives at The Station Night club in Rode Island because people chose to ignore building codes including using the wrong noise cancelling foam and the use of pyrotechnics .