“Sometimes people don’t understand the process, and they get upset when they’re made to do things,” Giblin said. “Lots of times people will say, ‘Nobody else makes me do this,’ as in other code officers in other jurisdictions, but when I talk to those code officers I realize that yes, they do. Sometimes people will tell me, ‘I’ve never had to do this before.’ Maybe just cause they’ve never done it before doesn’t mean they weren’t supposed to.”

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Bitters & Bones

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Patrick Giblin (Enterprise photo)

Brothers Johnny and Jimmy Williams, who own Bitters & Bones on Broadway, have been looking to build a 20-foot by 40-foot deck since summer 2018 — a year-and-a-half — and Johnny described Giblin as “adversarial” from the start.

The deck would extend from the back of the building to the lawn behind Bitters & Bones. This project also included an additional storage area on the back of the building, which they received a permit for and have completed.

They said they hope the deck will cost $25,000 to construct, but they’ve already spent $45,000 on designing and consulting.

Since they first applied for a building permit, the Williams brothers have submitted 18 redesigns, they said.

“Those were required by Pat to move forward, but he would not give suggestions as to what he’d like to see changed,” Jimmy said.

Bitters & Bones on Broadway in Saranac Lake is seen Monday. (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

“I met with these people multiple times to try and guide them along, and I will with anybody,” Giblin said.

The Williams brothers said the latest roadblock in getting a building permit for the deck has to do with means of egress (exit). The current design has only one staircase, and Giblin said it needs two.

According to the International Building Code, if a space’s occupancy is 49 people or fewer, it only requires one egress, and Jimmy said the deck would hold just that.

However, the yard would accommodate more people, and while the Williams brothers see the deck and the yard as two separate sections, Giblin views it as one area. The yard connects to a trail that leads through the woods up to Alpine Terrace. The yard also has a stone stairway, but Giblin said that is not up to code, either, and doesn’t count as an egress.

Johnny and Jimmy said they’d like to adhere to the code and are open to changes as long as they know what the changes have to be.

Jimmy Williams (Enterprise photo)

The brothers said that throughout this process, they’ve received approval from three engineers and stamped plans from two of them. They also called upon Lake Placid code enforcement officials for their opinion. Mike Orticelle and Darci LaFave agree issuing the building permit is ultimately up to Giblin, but they saw nothing wrong with the engineer’s plans for the deck, and they wrote a letter saying so.

“If you’re going to refute two code officers and three engineers, what other options do we have?” Johnny said.

Giblin then wrote to the state Department of State Assistant Director for Technical Support Kevin Duerr-Clark, asking for his opinion. In a response, Duerr-Clark agreed with Giblin that the deck should have two means of egress.

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Mud room

Johnny Williams (Enterprise photo)

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In a recent letter to the editor, Dan Reilly wrote, “Village residents have been subjected to arbitrary, capricious and abusive code enforcement — so much so that some builders go out of their way to avoid projects in Saranac Lake.”

In his letter, Reilly explains how he recently tried to build a mud room off the back of his house and the problems he ran into.

“A week after submitting drawings, application and payment, I still did not have a permit,” he said. “I was then told an engineered, stamped plan was required. In this example, a stamped plan is not required because of the project’s low cost and because I was doing the work myself. However, I got the stamped plans at an expense of $600, which was more than the cost of the framing materials. A week later, still no permit for the simplest of projects.”

So Reilly started work anyway, and Giblin issued him a stop-work order. They got in an argument over it, but Giblin said he didn’t issue any fines or tickets to Reilly.

“The residents of Saranac Lake deserve better,” Reilly said. “We want our village to thrive and not be choked by inept management and cynicism.”

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Tough but fair?

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Village Mayor Clyde Rabideau, who’s run the Rabideau Corp. development company for more than 40 years, said Giblin is the “most arduous code enforcement officer I’ve ever encountered, but he’s never wrong. We’re both West Pointers. He understands his attention to detail.”

Rabideau said there have been multiple occasions when he’s submitted applications for a building permit and Giblin had him redo them.

“He’ll give you a review of the plans and say, “You need to correct this and clarify that,'” he said.

Tracey Schrader, who co-owns Schrader General Contracting with her husband Randy in Saranac Lake, said there’s truth on both sides of Giblin’s work style. She is also a member of the Harrietstown Town Council.

“We have a fairly decent relationship with Patrick Giblin,” she said. “Sure, Pat can seem difficult, but if you follow the rules and give him what he’s asking for, you should be fine.”

Schrader has been contracting in the area for 28 years. She said she’s had only one issue with Giblin since he took the job in 2015. Last year, her company was looking to build a foundation for a new home on Lake Street.

“We went to him in the early fall,” she said. “A few weeks went by before we got the permit, and by that time we had hit frost and the digging cost twice as much. That was the only case we had an issue with Pat.

“We’re happy to continue working in the village, and we’ve worked with Pat long enough now to know how he wants things.”

Schrader said she thinks some people were used to more lax rules and procedures for development before Giblin became code officer. She said he can be gruff, but she appreciates his by-the-book way of operating.

“For years things were a lot easier to accomplish, and maybe not in the right way,” she said. “When you have a code officer following the rules and doing his due diligence, that’s when people start to say things like, ‘Oh, it didn’t use to be this way.'”

Aside from building permits, Schrader said she would like to see a greater focus on keeping already established properties up to safety codes.

Like Schrader and Rabideau, village board Trustee Rich Shapiro agreed that Giblin is “a stickler for the detail.”

“He’s a stickler for the detail, he’s a stickler for the letter of the code, and he’s pretty much always right,” Shapiro said. “It’s hard to argue with him when he’s right. I understand it’s frustrating to people. When we built the SkatePark, we had to go through the process of getting engineer-stamped drawings for what’s essentially a slab of concrete. That’s enforcing state law. I thought it was asinine, and I was really pissed about it until I researched and found out he was just enforcing state law.”

Shapiro said the village wants new businesses and development projects introduced to the community, but they need to follow the law.

“When public safety is a concern, we want someone who knows what he’s doing and can be a stickler,” he said. “We try to work with people on projects. Oftentimes they don’t listen to advice. They may be first-time developers and they don’t have a good handle on what they need to do.”

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DRI projects coming

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Soon, the Williams also plan to establish an on-site brewery and rooftop dining area at Bitters & Bones. That, combined with a beer garden that includes the deck and yard, is one of 10 projects set to divide $9.7 million in Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant money, which the state awarded the village last year. When the project list was finalized in July, Bitters & Bones was pledged $381,500 toward the project then estimated to cost $740,000.

Other private projects on Saranac Lake’s DRI include creating a children’s museum called Play ADK: The Adirondack Center for Play, and relocating and expanding Pendragon Theatre. The village also has projects on the list, such as a whitewater park and bathrooms at Berkeley Green.

The Williams brothers think Giblin will be stretched thin amid this wave of projects and suggested he could use some help.

Giblin said he thinks he handles his duties well even with the influx of major projects coming down the pike, but he does acknowledge that his job has plenty of responsibilities.

“When I first got the job, I was told it’s kind of like a triage,” he said. “You want to get to everything, but what right now is more important? Maybe you’re putting out the fires that are closest to your feet.”

While municipalities get DRI funding up front, private entities only receive it as reimbursement after the project is done and promised benchmarks are met. The Williams brothers said taking out a loan for their project is daunting and could endanger their business if the job is not able to be completed in a timely manner.

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Development difficulties

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At the Aug. 26 village board meeting, the Williams brothers read a letter, requesting an outside party be deputized for code enforcement in order to expedite the process of completing the deck. They said this would ensure the success of their upcoming DRI project and take some of the load off the village code enforcement office.

According to the International Building Code, third parties are required for special inspections such as those for masonry, soil and electrical work.

“They’re not replacements for my inspection,” Giblin said. “They’re in addition to the ones I perform. Like with the Hotel Saranac, they built that parking garage from scratch, so a special inspector took care of that.”

Likewise, the Saranac Waterfront Lodge being built on the shore of Lake Flower involves third-party inspectors for some aspects, but Giblin said there’s never been a case where someone took over his responsibilities.

“I’m not sure if we have a provision for that,” he said. “I figure it would have to go through the village Board of Trustees.”

At the end of the Williams’ letter to the village board, under a section titled “Alternate Courses Of Action NOT DESIRED and detrimental to ALL,” the brothers explained that if they don’t receive support, they could file a complaint with the Department of State, file a lawsuit for lost revenue and punitive damages, or deny the DRI grant.

Rabideau said the village took that as a threat to sue.

“At that point, we have to refer everything to an attorney, and we can’t respond,” he said.

The Williams brothers are still trying to move forward with their deck, but they said development in the village can be an unattractive endeavor.

“After this experience and knowing those of our friends and neighbors, who can deny that something must be done about code enforcement in Saranac Lake?” Johnny said.

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