Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Health Fees topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Health Department proposes new plan-review and septic fees tied to 2025 law change
Summary
Health Department presented fee schedule changes to align with HB 853’s new food-service categories and proposed septic permit and variance fee increases based on comparison with neighboring counties; commissioners directed staff to draft a resolution and bring fees to a public meeting.
At the Feb. 11 meeting Health Department staff presented proposed updates to the county’s health-fee schedule prompted by 2025 House Bill 853, which reorganized licensing categories for food-service establishments. Miss Hooper told commissioners the department proposes keeping the small-plan review fee at $60, converting the former large category into a medium plan-review fee at $115, and setting the large plan-review fee at $150; mobile food plan reviews would be split into small and large categories under the new state scheme.
Miss Hooper also proposed increasing septic permit fees (from $150 to $200), raising the local non-degradation review from $200 to $250, adding a multi-user-system permit fee for systems with three or more connections, and instituting a $400 variance application fee with $100 for each additional variance. She said the county’s current fees are lower than neighboring counties (Sanders, Lake, Flathead) and provided comparative fee schedules as context.
Commissioners discussed adopting the fee changes by resolution so the public can comment; one commissioner said, "we could move forward with that process" and asked staff to write up a resolution for a regular meeting. Staff noted that licensing fees paid to the state are returned to the county when inspections occur, while the plan-review fees remain county revenue. The board directed staff to draft the resolution and present the fee schedule for public input at an upcoming meeting.
