Commissioners, health board talk development fees
EPHRATA — Several members of the Grant County Board of Health expressed concern at its last meeting about the cost and the slow pace of approvals for well and septic permits, and wondered if something could be done to speed the process up.
County Commissioner Tom Taylor, a member of the Health District Board of Directors, was worried that fees for wells and septic tanks in multi-lot subdivisions were too high given the amount of work the health district has to do to approve them.
“There are a lot of complaints about not getting permits approved,” Taylor said.
Would it be possible, Taylor wondered, to create some kind of consolidated fee schedule for multiple lot subdivisions, or even possibly move one environmental health officer into the county’s building department to speed up approvals.
“I’d like to see the board address that,” said Taylor, who along with county commissioners Richard Stevens and Cindy Carter is a member of the health district board. “If we could scale it somehow, something could be done differently.”
The health district charges a series of fees for development in the unincorporated areas of Grant County, from permit fees to install septic tanks to fees to review septic and water plans to fees to register or alter plats. Both the health board and the county commissioners have received complaints from county residents — most recently from former state legislator Harold Hochstatter — about the cost of water and septic permits for multi-lot subdivisions.
However, Grant County Health Officer Alexander Brzezny said that water and septic permitting is “a core function” of a public health district, and a first line of defense against disease.
“Public health will only work as a whole, and we cannot charge when people call us with problems with their septic of sewer,” Brzezny said.
The health district’s fees only partially pay for the septic and water program, Brzezny said, since district workers cannot charge when they make emergency calls to deal with problems. And much of what district health workers do is a critical first response akin to fire and rescue, Brzezny added.
“Public health is expensive,” he said.
“An internal review is always appropriate,” Brzezny said of fees and the time needed to approve permits. “But I’m not sure there is money to be saved.”
The commissioners, however, hoped that cooperation could be improved between the county planning department and the health district.
“We’re looking for one health officer embedded in the planning department. That’s what we want you to consider, and we’d pay for it,” said Commissioner Richard Stevens.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.
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