Date: Fri 12-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Tom-Paternoster-building

Full Text:

In The Midst Of A Building Boom, The Inspector Makes His Rounds

(with photos)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Every morning on his way to work from his Sandy Hook home to the town offices

at Fairfield Hills, Tom Paternoster makes an important stop.

He stops at St Rose Church on Church Hill Road to say a prayer for strength

and guidance.

The strength he draws from that prayer helps him meet the challenges he faces

in his work as the town's chief building official, he explains.

"It's a good way to start the day. It really is. It works," Mr Paternoster

says of his daily visit to the church. The name "Paternoster" translates from

the Latin as "our father."

After arriving at work, Mr Paternoster takes on the role of the "answer man"

when it comes to questions on construction techniques and practices.

"We get a lot of questions," he said, noting the building department deals

with the public, builders, architects and engineers.

The department has three telephone lines and they're generally pretty busy.

Besides Mr Paternoster, the department includes assistant building official

Dick Hornibrook, assistant building inspector Tony Bezok, plus Linda Van den

Eeden and Lisa Pollard.

As the town's chief building official for the past year, Mr Paternoster says

he has worked to make it simpler for people to get answers to their

construction questions and to get their building projects completed promptly.

One approach to this has been redesigning the application forms used in the

construction process.

The forms, which had been somewhat confusing and included requests for

extraneous information, now focus on just the information that is required for

construction approvals, Mr Paternoster explained.

The building department should solve problems for people going through the

construction review process, not make the process any more complicated than it

needs to be, he said.

Being fair to applicants is paramount, he added.

Although the building code is precise about what's permissible in terms of

construction work, it's how that precision is portrayed to builders which can

make the difference between whether there is a spirit of cooperation between

the town and builders or not, he said. Mr Paternoster said he diplomatically

points out construction flaws as they arise in seeking to foster a sense of

cooperation with builders.

"I tell builders we're all in this together," he said, adding the goal of

inspecting buildings is creating physically sound structures.

"Newtown has some great builders. There's probably only five percent that give

us problems," he said.

During the course of a home construction project, a building inspector will

visit the site 12 times to make various inspections, concluding with an

inspection required for the "certificate of occupancy," the review needed

before a new building can be inhabited. Seventy-one items are checked on that

inspection.

"I love the challenge. It's a very challenging job... You have to constantly

study and learn and be open-minded... This job keeps you young," Mr

Paternoster said.

"It's a tough job. It's a stressful job. You're making so many decisions every

day," he said.

"I have an open door policy," Mr Paternoster said. If a builder comes into his

office and questions a decision of the building department, Mr Paternoster

said he will contact the state building department for a ruling.

Rapid Growth Rate

In 1998, 238 new homes were built in Newtown. That's up from the approximately

205 new residences which were built in town during each of the preceding three

years, he adds.

Most towns which have more than 100 homes built annually consider it a busy

year, he said. Mr Paternoster said he does not believe any single community in

the state has as many single-family houses built annually as Newtown.

Newtown has become a very attractive location for new home construction

because it is centrally located among Bridgeport, Danbury and Waterbury, it

has a good public school system, and it provides good value for a home's

purchase price, he said.

At the low end of the new home market, prices begin at about $270,000. Large,

elaborate homes may cost $1 million. Most new home prices fall somewhere in

the range between $300,000 and $400,000, Mr Paternoster said.

The typical $350,000 house is about 2,800 to 3,000 square feet in area, has

four to five bedrooms, has an attached two-bay garage, contains a full

basement, is situated on a one-acre or two-acre lot, and is built in the

Colonial style.

Larger houses typically range from 4,000 to 5,000 square feet in area, have

more bathrooms, and contain a large master bedroom suite. The largest new

homes built locally are about 7,000 square feet in area.

Mr Paternoster said future challenges for town building inspectors will

include the construction work associated with the redevelopment of the core

campus of Fairfield Hills, a 186-acre state-owned parcel which includes 1

million square feet of enclosed space. The state is marketing the former

mental institution property for private redevelopment.

Also, the presence of the new municipal sewer system is expected to spark

growth, Mr Paternoster adds.

In the coming year, new home construction is expected to continue at a rapid

pace.

In Hawleyville, 298 units are planned for The Homesteads at Newtown, an

elderly housing complex; 133 more condominium units are proposed for the

existing 80-unit Walnut Tree Village complex in Sandy Hook; 26 houses are

proposed for Newtown Hunt in Hawleyville; 25 houses are proposed for

Canterbury Woods in Sandy Hook; 16 houses are proposed for Winton Farm on the

Monroe border; and new home construction continues at Rollingwood in Sandy

Hook, among other scattered projects.

Mr Paternoster said he wants to make the building department as efficient as

possible. That involves microfiching existing records to reduce storage space

and enhance their accessibility, and also increasing department

computerization.

"This is a very tough business to break into," Mr Paternoster said of being a

chief building official. "No one retires," he observed.

Early last year after former chief building official Al Brinley retired from

town service, Mr Paternoster, who had been working as Middlebury's chief

building official, took the Newtown post.

Mr Paternoster, 55, had formerly worked as a building inspector in Newtown,

Westport, Easton, Monroe, Wilton, Roxbury, Bridgewater and Washington.

From 1978 to 1993, he and his wife Charlene operated T&C Plumbing and Heating,

a Sandy Hook-based business.

A Newtown resident for the past 24 years, Mr Paternoster passed the state

building inspection test in 1992, and began work in the field in 1993.