“The attitude of ‘your village’ and ‘my town’ don’t help any of us. If we pool our resources we can help each other, save money and make sure our taxpayers get the biggest bang for their bucks.”
~ Salem Town Chairman
Diann Tesar
By Gail Peckler-Dziki~Correspondent
The Salem Town Board unanimously approved cooperative agreements with the village of Bristol and Twin Lakes for building inspection services at the June 9 regular board meeting.
The contracts run for six months until the end of 2014, giving the three municipalities to see if the arrangement works and what tweaks, if any, need to be made.
Twin Lakes Administrator Jennifer Politt has been with the village for two years and decided to shop around to se if there was another way to provide needed inspection services and save money.
“Last April I sent a note around to nearby municipalities to ask if any were interested in sharing inspector services,” Politt explained.
Politt said that the village paid 60 percent of permit fees for inspection services. “That amounted to about $60,000 a year,” she said. “I looked around to see if we could possibly expand inspection hours and still save money.”
The contract with Salem does just that, allowing Twin Lakes to retain nearly $40,000 in permit fees that can be used to offset other costs and save taxpayer dollars.
Salem Administrator Pat Casey answered that email request. Salem building inspector Jack Rowland was working in Salem public works two days a week and handling the Salem inspection duties the other three. Bristol was the other municipality that answered Politt’s question positively.
Both municipalities have contracted with Salem to provide building inspection services including residential and commercial construction done by companies like Multi-M Contracting, plumbing, HVAC, zoning and residential electrical. The state inspector or village of Bristol commercial electrical inspector will provide that service for commercial electrical as those services are not provided by Salem.
Rowland will be on hand in Bristol on Tuesdays from 8 a.m. until noon and staff that office for 16 hours a month. Bristol will pay $560 a month to Salem and $35 for every hour more than 16 a month.
Rowland will be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Twin Lakes from 1 to 4 p.m. Exact offices hours have not yet been set for Twin Lakes. Since Twin Lakes has a contract with Randall until the end of the year, Rowland will be in the Randall office from 2 to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Office hours and on site inspection work will add up 50 hours a month. The monthly cost paid to Salem by Twin Lake is $1,516.66 with $40 for additional hour hours. Twin Lakes also provides inspection service to Randall by a contra that ends at the end of this year.
Rowland will be floating between municipalities on Fridays, working where needed.
Salem Town Chairman Diann Tesar said, “This is a new beginning for a positive future. All the communities west of I-94 should work together cooperatively. We need to keep our lines of communication open.”
“The attitude of ‘your village’ and ‘my town’,” she continued, “don’t help any of us. If we pool our resources we can help each other, save money and make sure our taxpayers get the biggest bang for their bucks.”