Williamstown Fire District Discusses Raising Permit Fees
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williamstown Fire District is looking at how it can adjust its inspection fees to reflect their value and bring them in line with the prices in neighboring communities.
Chief Craig Pedercini on Wednesday showed the Prudential Committee a table with data he collected from 10 Berkshire County municipalities, most of which currently charge more than Williamstown for similar services.
For instance, the district currently charges $25 for a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector inspection for a single-family home at the time of sale. Of the nine communities responding to Pedercini's inquiry, only two (Lenox and Lee) charge so little. Pittsfield charges $35; the rest are between $40 and $60.
Pedercini proposed to the committee that it raise Williamstown's charge to $50 for that service, with $15 for additional units on a property.
That change actually would lower the fee currently charged for three- and four-unit residences. Currently, "triplexes" and quads are charged $100 for an inspection; under Pedercini's proposal, they would pay $80 and $95, respectively.
Most of Williamstown's inspection fees currently are $25. Only duplexes ($50) and multi-family residences ($100) pay more for the service.
Pedercini's proposal would raise all the current $25 charges to $50 and start charging $50 for some inspections that currently have no charge in the town: liquor licenses, alarm system inspections and annual inspections.
Again, in those cases, a fee would make Williamstown more like the majority of the communities in the survey sample, which charge anywhere from $35 to $60 for the inspections.
"I just think it's time we changed it a little bit," Pedercini told the committee. "Originally, when I asked for $25 it was to reimburse for gas for our vehicle."
"It's time-consuming," Prudential Committee member John Notsley agreed. "No ifs, ands or buts.
"Let's face it, these are archaic rates and have to be brought up. And it's for [the building owner's] safety."
Prudential Committee Chair David Moresi asked Pedercini to do a condensed version of the table he showed the committee that the district can post with a future meeting notice, allowing the public to weigh in before the panel votes on the new pricing schedule.
In other business on Wednesday afternoon, the committee voted 5-0 to accept a bid from WM. J Keller & Sons Construction of Castleton, N.Y., to do the early site work required at the Main Street parcel where the district plans to build a new fire station.
The bid came in at just less than $698,000.
That figure was in line with the $680,000 estimate the district had from the designer of the site work, Guntlow and Associates, according to district consultant Bruce Decoteau.
Prudential Committee members expressed their appreciation that Northern Construction quickly moved its material out of the area where the site work for the new station is planned. The district has been renting space on the former Lehovec property to Northern as a laydown area for the nearby Route 2 (Main Street) bridge replacement project.
Decoteau told the committee that Keller likely would be on site by late August doing the work to "charge" the site to prepare it for the construction to begin some time next year.
Moresi noted that subsequent work on the building site will fall under the responsibility of the general contractor, which the district has not put to bid. The goal of the site work is to let the ground settle while the building plans are finalized and a GC is hired so that the property will be construction ready when those milestones are reached.
Decoteau told the committee that the district's architects at EDM of Pittsfield have released the 50 percent design development documents and that the process for designing the new station remains on track.
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