Vidalia &8212; The Concordia Parish Police Jury decided Monday to wait and see if any changes are made to Act 12 before deciding to adopt a plan to comply with the law.

&8220;I see several changes in Act 12 being made come election time,&8221; President Melvin Ferrington said. &8220;We&8217;ll wait and see if the Louisiana Legislature makes changes in the act during their special session this year.&8221;

Act 12 is a state legislation that, starting Jan. 1, will require new construction to be inspected by a International Building Code inspector.

The inspector would inspect 10 different entities of a home including plumbing, electrical and water systems and foundation work before a citizen could build.

The reason Act 12 was adopted was because of the $37 billion damage caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the Louisiana Gulf Coast last year, Johns said.

Rapides Area Planning Commission authority Matt Johns came to the regular jury meeting to give its members another option before hiring private contractor to inspect newly built houses in Concordia Parish.

Secretary Russell Wagoner said the jury met with an IBC certified inspector in August that promised he could inspect houses in the parish at 85-88 cents a square foot if the jury hired him.

Johns proposal to the jury was to have Concordia Parish join a regional district made up of other parishes that would receive federal grant monies to train engineers to be IBC certified.

&8220;Today&8217;s situation is that there are a lack of available professionals, increasing cost for those professionals based on today&8217;s economy and of course time constraints to hire them,&8221; Johns said.

Johns said if the jury would adopt the Rapides Area plan, federal grant money would be used either to hire more personnel to be trained in one year to be certified or to train Concordia Parish&8217;s existing building inspector to be certified in three years.

&8220;The Louisiana Recovery Authority is already looking to hire engineers from an institute in Virginia that are already IBC certified to train local engineers for six months to a year,&8221; Johns said.

Wagoner said Johns plan would also save money on building inspection costs for homes by about 40 cents a square foot.

However Ferrington said he thought it was too soon to adopt a plan.

&8220;The central region of Louisiana is getting unfairly treated by Act 12 and I feel that changes will come after the special session,&8221; Ferrington said.

In other business:

4 The jury approved giving Homeland Security Director Morris White $826 to hang signs on the new Homeland Security Command Center trailer stating that the trailer belonged to the jury.

4 The jury approved a motion to hold a public hearing, Nov. 13, to discuss closing a portion of Red River Levee.

4 The jury approved a motion to hold a public hearing, Nov. 13, to discuss a load limit sign on Wildsville Road.

4 the jury approved a motion to hold a public hearing, Nov. 13, to place speed limit signs on Haley, Indian Village and Don Howard roads.