By Susan Reeves
The Mount Vernon City Council did the right thing during the regular meeting on Tuesday, July 13. Council member Jasper Scott presented a proposal to return the verbiage on building permit fees back to what they were prior to changes made last month.
This basically rescinds the requirement to obtain a permit to replace a like for like heating and air conditioning unit within the city limits of Mount Vernon. If a residence or business adds square footage or adds an additional unit for any reason, a permit and inspection will be required.
The requirement of this permit came into question after the city council opted to formalize an agreement with an outside inspection firm and raised permit rates to cover the full cost of the permit and inspection process. The cost of the permit for replacing a defective unit went from around $20 to $179.
A survey of the seven municipalities surrounding Franklin County indicated that four did not require a permit for this type of replacement.
The other permit fees and requirements mandated by the City of Mount Vernon remain in place. This goes along with City Administrator’s Lee Elliott plan to departmentalize costs and reduce our tax burden. The plan is to have permits and inspection fees cover the entire cost instead of subsidizing the work with property taxes. As well, he wants the water department’s cost completely covered by fees and usage payments.
Kudos to the council for changing this code. They do however, plan to add requirements on the mechanical, electrical, and gas pipe inspections at a later date.
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