McCollum now Whitfield’s chief building official

Published 10:49 pm Friday, November 24, 2006

Before any house can be occupied in unincorporated Whitfield county, the county building office will do at least six different inspections.

“We do a footing inspection prior to the pouring of concrete. Then we’ll do a roughing inspection and that’s the framing and all of the wood products that are installed and all the electrical and plumbing and heating and air that’s installed,” said Ringo McCollum, Whitfield County’s chief building official

As work progresses, officials will also do insulation, sheeting and power inspections, and when it’s all finished, they’ll perform a final inspection.

To make all of this run just a little bit smoother, the Board of Commissioners created the post of chief building official this summer

Board chairman Brian Anderson said the decision resulted from discussions with the Dalton City Council about consolidating their building inspection departments.

“We discovered that, relative to the number of permits we issue, we were understaffed, not just compared to the city, but to other governments around us,” he said.

Previously, one department handled both building inspection and zoning. The board decided to split those departments.

Board members hired McCollum in October. He’d previously served as chief building official in White County for the past year and a half.

But though he is a relative newcomer to Whitfield County government, McCollum is no stranger to the area.

“I was born in Dalton in 1965, but I lived most of childhood in Michigan. We moved moved back to Georgia in 1980, and I graduated from Murray County High School in 1983,” he said.

He then attended attended Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta and earned a degree in architectural engineering.

McCollum says he always had an interest in building and architecture.

“As a child, it was something that fascinated me as far back as I can remember. In high school, I took drafting classes,” he said.

McCollum worked for the city of Dalton as assistant building official for about 11 years.

McCollum and his wife Sherry have two children: Dylan and Emma.

“We still had a home here, and we wanted to come back home. When this position became available, I was glad to get a chance to come back home,” he said.

McCollum now oversees day-to-day operations of the building inspections office, which includes two other building inspectors.

“We average anywhere from 20 to 30 inspections daily,” he said.

“We don’t do too many inspections on existing buildings. Most of it is new construction, both commercial and residential, “he said.

“Right now, it’s probably pretty even between commercial and residential. We’ve got a lot of commercial growth going on and a lot of residential growth as well,” he said.

The department only handles unincorporated parts of the county. The different cities have their own building inspection departments.

“Having worked before in this community, I have a good rapport with the local contractors. I worked with them when I worked with the city,” he said.

McCollum says he hasn’t noticed many differences between working for the county and working for Dalton.

“Pretty much statewide, everybody should be on the same page and enforcing the same codes,” he said.