The City of Minot will join the international celebration of Building Safety Month throughout May, although the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will require some changes from previous years.

Luke Tillema, building official for the City of Minot, said his department’s traditional seminars and other live events have been put on hold. Instead, the International Code Council has created online resources that focus on four weekly themes for the month of May.

This year, Building Safety Month celebrates “Safer Buildings, Safer Communities, Safer World.” For its 40th year, Tillema said the campaign will address a new topic each week on keeping communities safe and resilient. The weekly themes for 2020 are:

– May 1-10: Disaster preparedness

– May 11-17: Water safety

– May 18-24: Resiliency. Sustainability. Innovation

– May 25-31: Training the next generation

“Hopefully, the situation with COVID-19 will improve and we can conduct some of our regular seminars at the Minot Public Library and at local businesses later this year,” Tillema said. “For now, we’re working to make sure our instructors are ready and we have enough materials prepared if we’re able to hold our usual seminars.”

Building Safety Month is an international campaign that takes place in May to raise awareness about building safety. This campaign reinforces the need for the adoption of modern, regularly updated building codes and helps individuals, families and businesses understand what it takes to create safe and sustainable structures.