After just over ten years as Merritt’s building inspector, John Chace is hanging up his hat and retiring from municipal building inspection.

But don’t think that means you won’t see him around.

Chase’s first job as a building inspector was back in 1964, for the District of Sumas, now the city of Abbottsford. In 1975 he moved on to Mission to serve as their chief building inspector, and in 1980 he moved to Maple Ridge for the same position there.

In 2000, his firm was contracted by the City of Maple Ridge to assist with their downtown revitalization program. While he was working on that, he did holiday relief for the Merritt building inspector.

“Then he left and I came up here, and the holiday relief continued for 10 years,” laughed Chace.

When he first started working in Merritt he did building and fire inspections, but then the fire department took over the fire inspection side of things, and he focused solely on buildings.

He said the slow pace up here made the job enjoyable. “What we’d do in Maple Ridge in a week we’d do in a year up here,” he said.

“Your job isn’t so much as a policeman, it’s more to help people build. Although codes and that are slowly changing so it’s harder and harder to be in a position just to assist people.”

“Merritt’s a great little town,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of friends here. That’s one difference say between here and the big city is you make more friends in the job. Not as many enemies,” he laughed.

He said that of all the places he’s worked over the course of his career, Merritt has given him some of the more pleasant experiences on the job.

Now that he’s retired, he’s going to have more time for his hobbies.

One of them is working on hot rods, which he does with his son and son-in-law, for racing and showing.

“I’ll be able to do some of the work rather than have them do it all!” he said.

He’ll also get some fishing done, but he’s always made time for that. Even before he started working in Merritt, they had a family and friends fishing derby up here.

This will be the derby’s 21st year.

“We take it to a different lake every year,” he said. “That’s one great thing about this place, what is the claim, we’ve got 100 lakes within an hour of downtown?” he chuckled.

“It’s a little dusty, but it’s peaceful.”