Sneaky fees

Our building inspector is also asking for increases in electrical and plumbing and gas permit fees.

Apparently they haven't been raised since 2004 so it's justifiable to double some of them, I suppose.

If you are at all concerned about this, I would toddle on down to the Clerk's Office and pick up an agenda, or the part of the agenda that has the details. Having never applied for a permit to build anything, I don't really have a clue.

I just thought it was interesting that, for example, the permit fee (electrical) for 600 amp service-commercial may go from $150 to $300.

And while the (electrical) permit for a new house 2,800 s.f./$250K would go up $100 under this scheme (from $250 to $350), the one for new house 5,000 s.f./$500K would only go up by $50 (from $550 to $600).

Maybe the first was too low to begin with ... yes, it does seem to be lower on average than area communities (there's a comparison chart provided) but then the second could be construed as being way low, in comparison to at least W. Newbury, Rowley and Salisbury:

Nbpt - $550 (proposed $600)
Newbury- $300
West Nby - $1,000
Salisbury - $750
Rowley - $750
Amesbury - $200
Ipswich - $330
Merrimac -$155
Haverhill - $250

I left off Manchester, Salem, Beverly - all of those were around $1,500.

Judge for yourself.