It must be “Oak Ridge bashing” season again
I guess it’s Oak Ridge bashing season again. It’s a peculiar phenomenon.
Today’s News Sentinel has a business-page story about Roane County’s recent successes in attracting industry to the county, particularly to the Roane Regional Business and Industrial Park.
In the middle of the upbeat story about Roane County’s success in getting itself onto industrial prospects’ radar screens and bringing in jobs and capital investment, there’s a classic bit of Oak Ridge bashing:
Roane County’s willingness to understand the needs of business has made a difference in recruiting development, according to Steve Kirkham, who served as chairman of the county’s Industrial Board until January.
Kirkham, who owns and operates a chain of Rocky Top Markets, brings a business professional’s perspective to the challenge of recruiting companies.
“If somebody builds a plant and they need an electrical inspector out there on a certain day to make sure the work doesn’t stop, we will accommodate them,” he said.
Kirkham said he has faced similar situations in building new stores in other communities that have not been as accommodating.
“If you ask for an electrical inspection on a specific day in Oak Ridge they’ll tell you the guy only gets out to that part of town every other Thursday,” Kirkham said. “I probably would not build in Oak Ridge if they gave me the real estate.”
I can’t know what Mr. Kirkham’s company has experienced in Oak Ridge, but I do know that the city staff attends monthly meetings with area developers at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce to hear about their concerns, and city manager Jim O’Connor told me today: “We have same day service and have been known to inspect at night. All inspections will be done within a 24 hour period.”
While I’ve observed or been told about (by people who talked to me in person) too many situations in which residents felt the city staff went too far on behalf of developers, as well as situations where city inspection staff were inconsistent or placed seemingly unreasonable requirements on restoration and remodeling projects, the people who (like Mr. Kirkham) make blanket allegations that the city is impossible for developers to work with never seem to come forward with particulars, and they do not deliver their criticisms in person. I guess that East Tennessee still holds so much left-over animosity toward Oak Ridge (dating from the Manhattan Project days) that people are prepared to believe these allegations (and print them in the newspaper) without even thinking to ask for facts.
Rocky Top Markets has four locations in Oak Ridge (according to its website) — more than they have in any other single city. Their long-time locations on Oak Ridge Turnpike have some of the busiest gas pumps in the city. I doubt that the company officials would be willing to tell their loyal Oak Ridge customers that the company can’t stand to do business here…
Update (first posted as comment March 3, 2008 @ 9:52 am)
More follow-up in a message from city Code Enforcement staff (the following is a quotation from the message, edited for brevity and to remove staff names):
[Before September of 2005] inspections were being performed at almost a “will call” basis. At times the contractors (electrical, plumbing and building) called the inspectors direct to request an inspection.
In September of 2007, in order to be more efficient and cost conscious (because of the rising cost of fuel) regarding routes driven by the inspection staff, [a new policy was initiated] that all inspections (except emergency ones or ones where weather was a factor) must be requested by 4:00 PM and the inspection would be performed the next day. …We try to accommodate people who “forget” to call in the day before or the ones that need an inspection due to weather or other factors.
…The only times that anyone has had to wait a day or so on an inspection was if [the inspector] had been on vacation or the interim period when we were using [another employee after an inspector resigned]….
Since I have been here, never to my knowledge has anyone been told “inspectors only work an area on certain days or every other Thursday”. It is a fact that some State of TN contract electrical inspectors (independent contractors, who set their own schedule) do work certain areas on certain days. This is due to the large geographical area they have to cover. If an inspection was failed on Tuesday, it would be the next Tuesday before a reinspection could be made.
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Ellen,
I don’t normally comment on Blogs, but you’ve hit the nail on the head, and I wanted to give you a big AMEN.
Today I called and left a message with Mr. Kirkham’s voicemail expressing my extreme displeasure over his comments. I for one have been a customer for years, but I tend do to business with folks who support Oak Ridge.
I also called the Roane Alliance and talked with them as well.
Comments like this should not go unchallenged.
Comment by Tom Beehan — February 28, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
The inspectors in Oak Ridge are not the problem. I have seen and worked with these people for years. Never has any of my work been postponed by an inspector. Mr. Kirkham must be part of the unscrupulous developers who try to hide work and fully avoid inspectors as they come to his work site. I’ve seen how these kinds of developers hide behind a Port-a-John when inspectors come onsite. I run to inspectors, present my workload and scope, address concerns where interpretation needs a clearer understanding to the work asked to be inspected. It isn’t difficult to work with Oak Ridge inspectors. Other issues in Oak Ridge are the difficult matters in developing, not the inspectors.
I plan to tell my local Rocky Top manager about this dig and see how he would like Oak Ridgers to do businesses who like Oak Ridge. I’m sure when this gets out, Rocky Top will see a drop in customers. I plan to present my disgust, I buy $200 of fuel a month from Rocky Top, time to change.
Comment by Ray Kircher — February 29, 2008 @ 9:24 am
I have to add if Mr. Kirkham knows the code, why doesn’t he face the truth of his issue with Oak Ridge, we clearly follow the rule. He is flat out lying about the times of Oak Ridge inspectors.
Comment by Ray Kircher — February 29, 2008 @ 9:26 am
Shell found the story very interesting. Robin, in customer service, said Mr. Kirkham is to abide by Shell’s rules also. I wonder how well those conversations go over? Does Mr. Kirkham have any complaints of the rules Shell enforces upon him?
Comment by Ray Kircher — February 29, 2008 @ 4:40 pm
More follow-up in a message from city Code Enforcement staff (the following is a quotation from the message, edited for brevity and to remove staff names):
[Before September of 2005] inspections were being performed at almost a “will call” basis. At times the contractors (electrical, plumbing and building) called the inspectors direct to request an inspection.
In September of 2007, in order to be more efficient and cost conscious (because of the rising cost of fuel) regarding routes driven by the inspection staff, [a new policy was initiated] that all inspections (except emergency ones or ones where weather was a factor) must be requested by 4:00 PM and the inspection would be performed the next day. …We try to accommodate people who “forget” to call in the day before or the ones that need an inspection due to weather or other factors.
…The only times that anyone has had to wait a day or so on an inspection was if [the inspector] had been on vacation or the interim period when we were using [another employee after an inspector resigned]….
Since I have been here, never to my knowledge has anyone been told “inspectors only work an area on certain days or every other Thursday”. It is a fact that some State of TN contract electrical inspectors (independent contractors, who set their own schedule) do work certain areas on certain days. This is due to the large geographical area they have to cover. If an inspection was failed on Tuesday, it would be the next Tuesday before a reinspection could be made.
Comment by Ellen Smith — March 3, 2008 @ 9:52 am
Steve Kirkham must never have built in Knox County, Loudon County, Union County, Sevier County, including Anderson County where these counties have state inspectors with a 3-day and 2-day work schedule. Kirkham is obviously delirious and deranged about City of Oak Ridge inspectors.
Comment by Ray Kircher — March 7, 2008 @ 6:39 am