STEUBENVILLE — Chief Steubenville Building Inspector Dave Herron is leaving for a job in Muskingum County after just eight months on the job.

His last day on the job here will be Friday.

City Manager Jim Mavromatis said while he hates to see him go, he understands why Herron resigned — his new position is much closer to his Central Ohio home: Since joining the Steubenville inspections staff he’s faced a daily commute of 90 minutes, 90-minute commute each way from home.

“Ninety minutes in the morning, 90 minutes in the evening–you tack that on to an eight-hour day, those are 11-hour days you’re working,” Mavromatis said.

Herron, who joined the building department in March, is credited with erasing the hefty commercial and residential permit backlog that had built up after the retirement of his predecessor, Anthony Bodo.

He previously had spent 20-plus years as an inspector in north Florida and the Florida Keys, where he was already licensed. Due to his extensive experience, the state had granted Herron interim certifications and at some point in the near future will find out what areas they’d like him to retest.

Contacted Wednesday, Planning Director Jessica Gumm declined comment, calling it a “personnel issue.”

But the Muskingum County commissioners had no such reticence, including Herron’s hiring in the Oct. 20 meeting minutes posted online.

Council had been briefed on Herron’s resignation in a closed-door session after their public meeting Monday.

Second Ward Councilman Tracy McManamon said he’s disappointed Herron is leaving, “but I understand. He was driving 1.5 hours each way to get to work everyday and that was taking a huge toll on him.”

“His intent was to move here but he just could not find the right housing situation so he had to make the difficult decision to resign and find something in his field closer to home,” McManamon said.

He, too, applauded Herron’s work since joining the city staff in March.

“David came in and inherited a huge backlog of inspections and worked tirelessly to get that backlog down,” McManamon said. “We received numerous comments from the community about how easy he has to work with, how he went the extra mile and certainly kept the goal of making Steubenville a much easier city to open or expand a business.”

The good news, he and Mavromatis said, is they have someone in-house now who can step into the chief building inspector role.

“David did a good job,” Mavromatis said. “But we have a good person (on staff now) as interim building official. He has 18 more months to get his final certification, but he can sign off on everything … so everything is covered.”

First Ward Councilman Dave Albaugh agreed the city “will be fine.”

“The other inspector has his interim building official license also, so it will be a smooth transition,” Albaugh said.