Bluewater Council Make Adjustments to Building Permit Fees

by Bob Montgomery

Bluewater council has agreed to proceed with a review of the municipality's building permit fees.

Bluewater Mayor Paul Klopp says council had asked a consultant to look at their current fee structure and that report was presented to council on Monday night. Klopp says the consultant's report suggested that the municipality had not been keeping up with their fees and had been dipping into reserves to cover the ups and downs over the last few years.

Klopp says the report recommended they make substantial increases in their fees and he says they'll do that over the next two years. Klopp says they're adding the fee for a septic tank into the new fee and that, with the increase, will amount to an additional increase of about $500 over each of the next two years. Klopp says that should prevent them from going into a deficit situation with their reserves.

Klopp adds, going forward, council will take a closer look at their costs for building permit fees and adjust their rates accordingly rather than dip into reserves.