Mayor: Ocean Beach homes must get inspected

Residents in Ocean Beach whose homes have not passed an electrical inspection since superstorm Sandy swept several feet of floodwaters into the village must do so before they can reoccupy those homes for the summer season, Mayor James Mallott said at an Ocean Beach Association meeting Thursday night.

Mallott told a packed room at the civic association meeting in the Unitarian Church of All Souls on Manhattan's Upper West Side that the village building inspector would mark the meters of every house in the village with a red tag, meaning it would need to be inspected.

Certificates of occupancy and renters applications will be suspended until homeowners can prove that an electrician has been to their home and approved the restoration of power, he said.

There have been several instances recently where fires have almost sparked as a result of a property owner powering up a house or business that had sustained water damage without first replacing the electrical system or even having it inspected, Mallott said.

He said the inspection, which would need to be done by a licensed electrician, would probably cost homeowners between $200 and $400.

The mayor also told the residents present that the village will start implementing a temporary trap-bag system that uses 100-pound bags filled with sand to protect the oceanfront, where dunes were battered by Sandy's wind and waves. The board of trustees approved a resolution at their regular meeting on March 2 to accept a proposal from Medford-based Land Use Ecological Services Inc. to implement the system.