Lincoln council adopts ordinance to resume local electrical permitting, 5–1

The Lincoln Town Council voted 5–1 to adopt an ordinance letting the town assume responsibility for electrical permitting and inspections beyond single‑family residential work.

Code enforcement officer Denton Trotter told the council that the state had been handling commercial and industrial electrical permits and that, without an ordinance, those state records are not reliably transferred to town files. “Currently, all we are allowed to do is just single‑family residential electrical inspections,” Trotter said, arguing that local permitting would improve town record keeping and safety.

Resident Mary Lamonica raised questions about whether the draft had been reviewed by the town attorney and how the town would track inspections and historical permits. Trotter said he has been using Excel to track permit data and expects to propose budgeting for a purpose‑built permitting system in a future budget cycle.

Councilors asked about workload and enforcement: Trotter estimated roughly 100 building permits and 100 electrical permits per year, describing inspections as averaging every three or four days and saying the change would not create an unmanageable daily inspection load. Trotter also said permit funds would come back to the general fund.

The council opened and closed the public hearing and then moved to adopt the ordinance. The motion carried, 5 in favor, 1 opposed.

The ordinance now directs town staff to resume issuing and recording electrical permits locally; town staff said further implementation details, including any software upgrade and fee structure, will be addressed in future budget proposals.