New London - Ten additional city employees will be relocated from their offices in the Stanton Building as an engineer assesses the structural integrity of the Union Street building.

The 10 Building Inspection Division employees will be moved to temporary office spaces for "probably several months," Director of Public Works Tim Hanser told the City Council on Monday night.

Last week, the Office of Development and Planning was relocated from the top floor of the building to City Hall after a worker replacing carpeting discovered a large crack in the concrete floor, according to a memo Hanser sent the mayor.

The crack runs about 18 feet from an exterior wall to an interior wall and is as wide as 1 inch in some places, Hanser said. Three 6x6 posts were placed beneath the concrete joist nearest the crack to shore up the floor to allow a structural engineer to study it.

"He is not too happy with what he is seeing," Hanser said. "It's not an urgent matter in that it is not a health or safety issue for staff, but we do have to assess the situation before we can do anything to move people back."

The emergency work to stabilize the floor was completed by a Montville contractor last week, Hanser said. Several councilors and members of the public expressed frustration Monday that the job was not offered to a New London contractor.

In other business Monday, the City Council voted unanimously to support the reinstatement of a program that aims to reduce blight in the city's neighborhoods by cracking down on landlords and tenants who violate city codes.

NIP-IT - or the Neighborhood Interdiction Program & Inspection Team - would attack quality-of-life issues, inspect properties for code and fire violations, and hand out citations. The team would be comprised of a police officer, a fire inspector and a city building official.

The city began NIP-IT in 2003, but the program was discontinued in mid-July 2012 when its funding was cut from the city budget, according to the mayor's office.

The proposal to reinstate the program was introduced by councilors Michael Passero and Michael J. Tranchida in January, at which time Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said he had plans to fund the program in his proposed budget for fiscal year 2016.

In an email to the council on Monday, Finizio said he supports the rebirth of NIP-IT. Finizio was absent from Monday's City Council meeting to tend to a last-minute family obligation, he said.

"This program was very helpful in addressing issues of blight throughout our city and I have already asked department heads to include funding for this program in the 2015-2016 budget," Finizio said. "Your support is greatly appreciated as the swift reinstatement of this program will be to the benefit of all New Londoners."

c.young@theday.com

Twitter: @ColinAYoung