Williamsport staff propose first overhaul in five years to city permit and license fees

City codes and public-works staff presented an ordinance at the March 12 Williamsport Public Works Committee meeting proposing multiple increases to the city's general fee schedule, including contractor licenses, plumbing contractor licenses, special-event permits and several inspection fees.

The proposal, introduced by Gary Narr of the Codes Department, would raise the city contractor license from $80 to $100 and the commercial plumbing contractor license from $80 to $100, among other changes. Narr said the city has not updated these fees since 2020 and that the adjustments are intended to keep fees aligned with other municipalities and to offset inspection and operating costs.

Narr summarized the key changes and the rationale. "What this is, obviously, the city bureau codes, deals with all the permitting... Periodically, we go through and we update the code under the general code," he said. He explained the proposal includes: raising the contractor and plumbing licenses to $100; increasing a conditional-use fee (reported in the packet as increasing to $300); raising street permit fees (from $10 to $20 in one line and some pool-related street fees from $20 to $30 per pool); increasing special-event permit charges (staff noted a current $50 charge and discussed moving annual event organizer fees to $250 or Scott Livermore's requested $350 to better reflect barricade and staffing costs); adding a $240 fee for new food-service or facility inspections; adjusting rental reinspection billing to $60 per address plus $15 per unit for multi-unit properties; and raising building-code-appeals fees from $200 to $350.

Streets and parks superintendent Scott Livermore explained the mulch/brush-processing and mulch-pit fees had to rise because of grinding, fuel and labor costs. He said operating those services cost the city about $90,000 last year and cited two categories of mulch-pit charges discussed at the meeting: higher fees for out-of-area contractors (reported at $6,000) and a lower in-city contractor fee (reported at $3,000). "We just tried to... bump everything up a little bit," Livermore said, adding that the increases are intended to keep the city from losing money on the service.

Councilman Vince Polizzi praised the incremental approach, saying the committee should keep increases gradual "so we don't try to catch up over multiple years in one fell swoop and some drastic major impact." Committee members asked staff to re-send the version of the ordinance with highlighted changes; Narr said he and staff would circulate an updated highlighted copy.

Committee members also questioned the rental reinspection fee structure. Narr said it applies to all rentals and described repeated reinspections as a driver for the change: when inspectors return multiple times after corrective-action notices, it consumes significant staff time. "Hopefully, this is gonna alleviate that time where they can do more important things than continue to go back out for these rental reinspections that we're doing four and five times over," Narr said.

No formal vote on the ordinance appears in the meeting transcript; staff indicated they would circulate an updated ordinance with highlighted changes and continue the item for council consideration.

Ending: Staff said they would distribute the highlighted ordinance and supporting backup to council and committee members for review before any final action.