There is no more denying it. I am the official (unlicensed) general contractor for this project. I have finally come to terms with this as of Friday and today.

 Friday, I was planning on organizing the warehouse some so that the floor spaces that were being worked on could be accessed. I woke up to a call from our plumbing contractor stating that our permits were denied. This led to a scramble to keep things moving forward which entailed me going down to the City Of Tampa Construction Division to speak with the reviewer that had denied us. The main reason for denial on the paperwork that I was faxed was that we were wet zoned and we were denied. This was all very vague to me. I grabbed our completed letter of commencement and headed to the Construction Division branch.

 The reviewer that I met with told me that since we were licensed as a microbrewery our usage had to change and also informed me that the submitted blueprints had no mechanical specs.

  The usage reference means that we are classified as a warehouse yet we are wet zoned as a microbrewery. This requires a change of usage from a warehouse to a microbrewery. Under these specs we will be held to a different code(building) by the city. This wasn’t a surprise. Understanding exactly what they meant when they were explaining this to me was the challenging part. I just looked at the reviewer and asked him for the common English translation so that I would know how to resolve the issue. This is underway as I type. I don’t foresee any problems in this area.

 The mechanical specs page on the blueprint is page C-4. It was not included in the blueprint that the plumbing contractor submitted. I have no idea why this occurred other than the page possibly being added after what the plumbing contractor needed. I was certain that the page was there and when the reviewer pulled the permit information with the blueprints, I realized it wasn’t. Here we go. I have to go back to the brewery to pick up the other blueprint including the mechanical sheet now and drop off the letter of commencement on the way.

 The letter of commencement had to be filed with the county clerk. I had to go to another building to get this done. After the fees that I paid for this, I was told by the Construction Division that it would have only been $1.50 more to file the letter through them and have them run it over to the county clerk’s office.

 The letter of commencement is filed. I go back to the brewery to get the complete blueprint. Now back on my way to the Construction Division. I wait in line again. I meet with another city employee that tells me I have to have two complete copies of the blueprint with the mechanical page. You can imagine how my disposition is getting by this point. I walk out again. Go back and get the other blueprint copy and then return to the Construction Division. This time I am told that the cooler specs need to be included in the blueprint. I have my guns loaded this time because I have been carrying around a blueprint of the cooler in my notebook for weeks now. I bring in my blueprints of the cooler (8.5”x11”) and am waiting to see smoke come out of the barrel. The city employee looks at the cooler blueprints and says they have to be in 18”x24” format and there has to be a duplicate. At this point I am frustrated to say the least and considering beating this city employee with the blueprints and whatever accessible office tools that might be lying around. It was too late to go to the copy shop and return in time for the material to be submitted so I licked my wounds and gathered all the rest of the material that I would need for Tuesday on Friday evening.

 I submitted the new blueprints today and made sure that we were on the same page with the city regarding building usage and wet zoning. Our project is currently on hold and could take as long as another 6 – 8 days. At least it is moving forward again.

  The good news, Joe mailed our Federal Licensing paperwork off last week. It was a mountain of bleached dead tree debris coated in ink. We tried to give them more than what they needed to reduce the licensing time. Keep your fingers crossed.

 The Guava Grove label is mostly complete. We are just waiting for a final proof from the design team. It will be another unique label. Right now our collection of artistic talent is up to a team of three.

  I don’t know if Joe wanted me to mention this or not but we have Cigar City Brewing T’s on the way. I believe they will be navy with our logo on them. The proof looked good.   

  I am looking forward to Oldsmar Taphouse this weekend. It will be a nice leisurely event away from any city or county office. I will take beer over politics any day.

            Take care,

            Wayne Wambles        

            Head Brewer

            Cigar City Brewing