LYNN — Zosia VanMeter will serve as the new director of inspection for the Inspectional Services Department (ISD) in Lynn.
The Inspectional Services Department ensures public safety, health, and welfare through their building, gas, plumbing, health, and sanitation standards for the community of Lynn. The ISD is customer-service-oriented as it responds to property owners, businesses, and contractors to address all plans, permits, and inspections.
VanMeter has been the acting director of inspectional services over the past two years and has a lot to be proud of. Two projects specifically were successful during her tenure. The first was a rodent abatement pilot program, which will soon become city-wide. The second project assisted in creating and maintaining written standard operating procedures to support consistency and cross-training.
As customer service is a main priority for the department, VanMeter is looking to maintain and further improve its level of service.
“We want to ensure we’re giving good customer service and information to anyone and everyone who comes in,” VanMeter said.
She added that even if they don’t have the answer someone is looking for because the problem doesn’t have a solution with ISD, they still want to be able to point them in the right direction.
VanMeter has laid out several goals for ISD over the next year. For example, she wants to make all applications available online and create fact sheets for some of the most common permits and licenses, written in a way the general public will understand.
She also plans on translating all documents provided by the department into multiple languages and having regularly scheduled inspections monitoring for code and ordinance violations.