Town Council Candidate Back Building His House

70 days after local builder Joe Orlandini and 3rd party inspector Steve Brockman botched his inspections with the Town of Fort Myers Beach, Greg Scasny has been given the green light to restart construction on his new home.

Back in August the Town of Fort Myers Beach put a stop work order on Town Council candidate Greg Scasny’s new home being built on Andre Mar. Greg and his wife Marcia lost their home in Hurricane Ian and hired Joe Orlandini to build the home. 

The town’s Building Official Joe Specht posted a notice to vacate and demolition notice on the new Scasny home after the town received word from the private inspector Orlandini said he was using, Steve Brockman, that he never inspected the house. Brockman told Beach Talk Radio in August he was never called to inspect the home. Inspections need to be conducted and filed with the town all along the way of a new home build. Because they were not in this case, Scasny needed to get new drawings done, and get a few issues corrected, before going back to Specht. Luckily he also took a lot of pictures along the way to help plead his case.  

Specht said back in August that without those pictures, and if Scasny did not have anything else to offer up as proof that the house was being built safely, the home most certainly would have had to have been demolished.

Specht is the sole decision-maker when it comes to new construction on Fort Myers Beach. It’s his job to make sure all the inspections are on file and structures are built safely. 

After more than two months, Scasny told Beach Talk Radio he’s happy to be building again. “With the anniversary of Hurricane Ian marking 2 years since my family has slept in their own beds, watching the house just sit there for months with an uncertain future has been another extremely excruciating experience for my family and I. Ian seems to be the gift that keeps on giving. It’s hard to put into words just how hopeless you feel when you see other houses going up and yours is just sitting there having nothing done because of decisions made by others. But we have taken the bull by the horns, learned our lessons and now are back and working on the house again and will continue to work as expeditiously as possible to get it to the finish line. My Family and I truly appreciate everyone’s kind words and support during this ordeal, they meant a lot to us.”

The town will now be conducting the inspections, not a 3rd party inspector. 

Scasny is one of 4 candidates running for 3 seats on the Fort Myers Beach Town Council this November. He hopes to be in his new home in early 2025.