COVID-19 Accelerates Transition To Paperless
Thank you to the construction industry for being patient with us during this time. There have been issues, but the industry stepped up and knew what we were all going through. They worked with us and everything helped to keep our industry moving forward. The Fargo Inspections Department had gone to a web-based inspection program about a year prior to the pandemic so we were prepared.
BRUCE TARALSON Inspections Director City of Fargo
At this time, the more we can do to keep distance and paperless the better. That has always been a goal anyway, so the pandemic has just accelerated contractors’ interest and willingness to adopt the system.
Faxing, emailing and calling for inspecting and permitting are going away. The online portal is here to stay and will eventually be the only way we do business. The earlier you can get on and get an account the better. Most citizens and contractors enjoy the system once they get use to it. It is like anything else, until you try it, you don’t know what you are missing or the time savings it can bring. The online portal enables you to submit plans online, get review comments and request inspections. We have always allowed all previous systems, even phone requests, to be utilized, so we really didn’t change anything except increase awareness of the online system and its resourcefulness for those using it. We can do everything we need to do on our mobile phone. When we first went totally remote inspecting, we had a few issues, but nothing that we or the industry could not figure out. There were few hiccups and most in the construction industry were very understanding. It helps to have a good tablet or mobile phone and everything can be done on there. There is also the capability to email through the system. If there is anything else you can think of that we should be looking at doing, let us know and we will see if we can implement: fargond.gov or (701) 241-1561.
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Plains Builder November 2020
