The City of Jefferson has a new building official.

Chad Stevens is a Jefferson-Scranton High School graduate, who went into construction right after high school. He is a registered contractor and has 27 years of commercial and residential construction experience. Stevens describes what drew his interest in wanting to be the building official for Jefferson.

“I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to kind of learn some new things , and just kind of still be in line with what I’ve been doing, but just kind of a little bit different path. But really, it was just about learning some new things and getting the opportunity to work with some new people.”

Stevens says his job responsibilities currently consist of code enforcement, issuing building and construction permits, and maintaining the city-owned facilities. He talks about how he sees himself working with property owners on code enforcement issues.

“I want to come out and meet with the residents and see what the issues are, about whether it’s some junk lying around the yard, that’s just been there for a while. I know it’s overwhelming for some people and they just don’t know where to start. So if we can start that conversation and figure out ways that we can work with them to help get things cleaned up. But I want people to be proud of their community and to live in a tidy community. Just keep things cleaned up here the best that we can.”

Stevens replaces Nick Sorensen, who was the building official from 2015-2020. Chad is married to Alexis and they have ten children. Chad and his family live in rural Greene County near the county border with Boone County.