Last Saturday morning, during office hours at the Pine Plains building inspector’s office behind Town Hall, Ed Casazza was hard at work, meeting with homeowners, reviewing applications and answering the phone. On Nov. 16, the Town Board named him to replace Drew Weaver, who retired from the part-time position after 20 years. The building inspector is an annual appointment made by the town board at their January reorganization meeting.
Casazza grew up in the Hudson Valley. His dad worked for IBM, first in Poughkeepsie and later Kingston. (They lived in Red Hook.) “My mother’s family had a farm in Pine Plains, and I had a bunch of relatives here,” Casazza said. “So, I was always here, almost every weekend.”
He moved to Pine Plains in 1971 and opened Casazza Construction the following year. “It’s soup to nuts,” said Casazza. “We started off framing and general construction, and my uncle was in the excavation business, so we did a little of that. Later, we started doing residential and then commercial concrete. And doing more excavating.” He also served on the Pine Plains planning board for a decade.
Casazza had been mulling retirement over the past couple of years, so when the building inspector position opened up, he put in an application. After being appointed, he decided he would close his business of 51 years on Dec. 31. “As building inspector, I don’t want there to be any conflicts of interest,” he said. Indeed, for his own house, which is under construction on Stissing Mountain Road (“we don’t have a C of O yet”), he’ll rely on Weaver to handle the permitting process.
Casazza is the first to admit that he faces a steep learning curve in his new position, which entails enforcing the New York State building code while working as a gatekeeper for the Pine Plains’ planning board and zoning board of appeals on both new construction and major renovations (residential and commercial). “When someone comes in here and wants to do something but it needs, say, a variance from the ZBA, or planning board approval, I can’t issue that permit,” he said. “My job isn’t to decide what is permitted, but to enforce what the planning board and ZBA decide.”
Since Casazza is not a “computer guy,” as he put it, he’s also at a disadvantage in navigating the town’s databases. “My hardest year will be the first, just learning all this stuff,” he said. With almost twice as many requests for permits this year than in 2022, “it’s pretty busy,” he said. “The economy’s doing pretty well.” Casazza has been getting advice and instruction from Weaver, whom the town board has put on retainer at $25 an hour during the transition. “Drew’s been an incredible help,” Casazza said.
Weaver, he noted, will continue to manage permit issues related to the major renovation project now well underway at The Stissing Center. But Casazza will work with the town’s engineers to monitor the clearcutting for the Carson Power solar farm in Pulvers Corners, which is expected to begin soon. He said that the area approved for clearcutting has been marked, “but we’ll use GPS to make sure they stay within the boundaries.”
Casazza is enthusiastic about applying his deep experience as a Pine Plains contractor and resident to his new role. He urges anyone preparing or considering building projects that may require permits to contact him. “Pine Plains is just a great little town,” he said.