It was nice to see a happy ending to the story of Mitch and Pam Hunsberger of Mentone.

I don't know them beyond what I've read in the newspaper, but they seem like decent, hard-working people.

They tried to exercise a bit of the American dream by buying a home.

Problem is, the basement wall of their relatively new home - it was five years old - collapsed in July. Apparently, the contractor failed to use reinforcing rods in the concrete.

Their basement flooded and the home could no longer be occupied because of the risk of it falling into the basement.

To top it off, their insurance company said it couldn't cover the damage because it was caused by construction that didn't conform to state building codes.

So the Hunsbergers rented a place to live and were pretty much at wits' end.

They were paying down a mortgage on a house that was uninhabitable and paying rent, too. Not a good situation.

But after word got around about the Hunsbergers' plight, the community helped out.

Friends, family, co-workers, and area businesses pitched in. Art's Excavating and other volunteers dug out the old wall.

Chore-Time Brock, the Hunsbergers' employer, raised $1,500 by holding a couple raffles.

This weekend, volunteers from the Builders Association of Kosciusko and Fulton Counties and Fidler Concrete are reconstructing the basement wall at the Hunsberger home.

Chore-Time maintenance department employees will be on hand to donate the labor.

All along, Chore-Time has helped organize the project.

So it looks as if the Hunsberger family will be back in business very shortly with as minimal a financial impact on their lives as possible.

It's a wonderful testament to the generosity of this community.

But it also points out how sorely lacking our county is in the area of building code enforcement.

There are 92 counties in Indiana. The vast majority of them have building inspectors.

You would think that a county as prosperous as ours would have one. We don't.

So when people like the Hunsbergers run into problems, there's no use asking the county for help. The county essentially throws up its hands and says, hey, sorry, but it's not our problem. They say that contractors are obliged to follow the state building codes.

One of our county commissioners said that hiring a building inspector would be too much government intrusion into people's private lives.

I'm all for smaller government, too, but sometimes the role of government is to protect the unwitting consumer.

I don't think the government should require dozens of warning stickers on ladders or regulate the heat generated by clothes dryers or require a materials safety data sheet for a water jug on the back of a contractor's truck.

But there is no way the average homeowner could know all the building codes. There is no way the Hunsbergers could have known there were no reinforcing rods in their basement walls.

I think it's time for our local elected officials to seriously consider establishing a building inspector position.

Now, compare and contrast this with the roadside vegetable stand guy along Ind. 13 at the intersection of Old Road 30.

Here's a guy trying to make a couple bucks selling veggies. He's a nice enough guy. I've met him.

But apparently somebody to the north doesn't like him or his vegetable stand. So a few well-placed phone calls were made.

Next thing you know, the state highway department is putting up signs admonishing people from parking on the right-of-way, the township trustee secures an injunction from a county judge preventing the farmer from selling vegetables and county cops are running him off.

While the injunction prevents him from selling vegetables, it says nothing about giving them away. So last Saturday he gave them away. It was the final day for the roadside vegetable stand.

I drove by there when he was selling vegetables and, frankly, I don't see what the big deal was. Sure, some cars were parked along the road, but there was plenty of room to keep the roadway clear.

And there is a four-way stop right there so it's not like cars were zooming through the intersection.

Frankly, the roadside vegetable stand caused much less congestion than any number of auctions or yard sales I drive by every weekend.

The township trustee said the stand was on property owned by a cemetery nearby, but that turned out to be untrue.

It's a bizarre irony.

On the one hand, a family's house is about to collapse because they've been victimized by shoddy construction and our local officials say there is nothing they can do. We certainly wouldn't want to intrude into the private lives of slipshod contractors.

On the other hand, a guy tries to sell a few veggies along Ind. 13 and officials at all levels of local government - township, county and state - swing swiftly into action to make society safe again. Now there's a private life in need of a little government intrusion.

Some would say this is just the way the world works. Maybe so. But in our little corner of the world, I think we can do better. [[In-content Ad]]