There’s no room to grow in the Moffat County Building Inspector’s Department.

As demand for building permits in Moffat Count increases, building inspector Patrick Mosbey said he has little time for other responsibilities, such as conducting inspections at food establishments.

As a result, Mosbey has fallen three months behind on the health inspections.

“I’m getting further behind every day. I just can’t carry the extra workload,” Mosbey told Moffat County commissioners Monday morning.

The building inspector didn’t have to perform health inspections until the commissioners signed a memorandum of understanding with the state agreeing the county would take on the responsibility and receive the $97 inspection fee.

The inspections brought Moffat County about $7,200 in revenue last year. By contrast, building permits brought the county about $63,000. That revenue brought in about $4,000 more than the building inspection department’s operating budget.

The plan was that Mosbey would perform the inspections when his workload slowed down, Commissioner Marianna Raftopoulos said.

Mosbey estimates he’ll approve 80 to 90 building permits this year. The building inspector’s workload usually slows the same time construction does, during the winter. But the state has objected to the county holding health inspections in late fall and early spring.

More than 80 food establishments in Moffat County require health inspections, Mosbey said. Grocery stores can take as long as half a day to inspect, while smaller restaurants can be inspected in a couple hours. Street vendors require inspections as well.

The commissioners and Mosbey estimated the building inspector would spend about 40 work days a year conducting health inspections.

Commissioner Darryl Steele suggested Mosbey do the inspections during the late fall and early spring anyway. If the state is upset with that, it can always take the job back, he said.

When the state performed the inspections, it would send one or two inspectors to the county for one week, and they would inspect everything, Mosbey said.

Even though restaurant owners knew the state inspectors were coming, the lack of surprise didn’t adversely affect public health, Mosbey said.