Inspection fees already high
In response to Dana Hartís article on raising fees to lower taxes on code enforcement (ěCode enforcement: Higher fees, lower taxes,î April 26):
You have not told the whole story!
Your example of a permit to change out a heat pump in an existing dwelling does not represent the amount of money you draw from a new house being built. Permits to build one whole house which was completed within the last year were over $1,600.
Inspections made were 14 trips x $65 = $910
Time spent on job site: approximately 6 hours
Times turned down were two, which were part of the 14 trips.
Why was the cost $1,600 instead of $910?
There is a difference between service calls made by repairmen and inspections made to a construction site in that the inspection department can route their calls close together and the repairman never knows where he is going next. Inspections are usually divided between inspectors in several areas of the county which are close in proximity.
You do not subsidize builders. The permit fee is passed on to the consumer.
The private sector has to let go of employees if there is not work. You expect to just keep on raising taxes and fees when you do not have the inspections to keep your office busy. Some re-inspections could be made on the next inspection without an extra trip.
When you say 14,000 inspections, are these separate inspections per trip or several inspections in one trip?
With cost of gas, we could save by letting county employees drive their own vehicles to the office. The private sector does not have this benefit.
ó Tim Dean
Deanís Construction
Salisbury
A driving dilemma
Iíve a dilemma. When I leave home to pick my girl up from work, I have to pass through one, sometimes two school zones in Rowan County. When I come to the school zone, I find that both lanes are blocked by parents waiting to pick their children up from school.
They are 1) parked in a No Parking Zone, (2) they are left of center, (3) they are left of a double yellow line. This is, as I have always been taught, according to traffic laws in the State of North Carolina, illegal.
These people are not cited for breaking North Carolina traffic laws. Why are they the exception? By what authority can these people break the same laws that I must abide by? Why must I sometimes go miles out of my way to accommodate these scofflaws?
Iíve in the past called the schools in question, only to be told ěfind some other routeî Not an answer that a taxpayer wants to hear. It is also just as bad when there is a school function (i.e., sports events) where the vehicles are parked partially in the roadway, thus creating a road hazard ó also, to my understanding, illegal. Some proper answers would be nice, please.
ó Jeff Bell
Rockwell