HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-EBP-2025-10-27Attendees:
Dave Warden
Aaron Vergason -Excused
Joe Donofrio
Tom Hayward
Scott Gibson
Reports from Plumbing Inspector
One stop work order at Walmart, Benderson had a backflow that failed. No permit filed yet
for the new component.
•
•Emerson plant has failed and they will need to re-pipe the meter room to correct a backwards
install.
•Caught 2 guys plumbing with out license. Blue-Jay was one.
•Met with City Attorney's about getting a backflow prevention policy/ordinance together.
•Joe will get an RFP together for a backflow tracking company (VEPO). Need backflow
prevention program in place before this happens.
•Need to do a FOG program. There are a lot of existing problems with the trap system that are
out there.
○Contact Shear to determine how best to do the inspection and sampling program.
•Fines/re-inspection fees. Working on this with Attorney's Office.
•Joe sent out a letter to the licensed plumbers with Code explanations and program intent. Joe
distributed a copy of this to the Board.
•The Building and Codes group does not agree that water heaters should be under the purview
of permitted licensed plumbing. It's been a long standing issue that the Building Division did
the inspections. There were 37 water heaters across the City of Ithaca all last year compared
to Auburn which had 400. Program isn't working well. Joe has been finding problems with
installs. It should be wholly under plumbing. We talked of splitting up the water heaters
between residential and commercial. So W&S should be all commercial. Dave feels the entire
issue needs to go through the Attorney's Office and that the entire water heater program
needs to be sent to W&S.
•Joe brought up the need to keep a list of active and inactive license holders. Can we do a
retired license list? The group thought that it was a good idea. There would be a period of
time where they'd have to re-take the test to relicense but they would need to declare
themselves inactive (with a $50 hold fee or something).
Public to be Heard
None
Comments from the Board
Tommy -
•Master Plumber's Test will be November 5th at the local Union Hall. 701 W. State Street at
8:00am
Examining Board of Plumbers
Monday, October 27, 2025 10:01 AM
New Section 1 Page 1
8:00am
•Three folks will be repeats.
•Tommy distributed an example of a Journeyman Plumbing Exam. Thinks that the questions
are something all Journeyman should be competent in. The test could be approved by the
EPOP. Journeyman would be kept under a separate list by the Inspector.
Dave & Scott -
No Comment
New Section 1 Page 2