Shorewood Village Leaders Pour Water On Fire Inspection Fees

A critical village board sent back a proposal to charge small businesses for the right to have a Troy Township firefighter conduct an inspection.

"I can't believe they need this kind of money to walk through a building," Shorewood Trustee Dan Anderson said of the fees the Troy Township Fire Protection District expects to collect for inspecting businesses.

"I'd tell them to get out," Anderson said during Tuesday night's village board meeting. "I don't need your inspection."

And the village board didn't feel the need to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the fire protection district, instead deciding to put the matter off until "a future meeting, if it ever comes back," said Mayor Rick Chapman.

The proposed agreement with the fire protection district was the brainchild of former village Administrator Kurt Carroll, who recently quit his job for the greener pastures of New Lenox's town government.

The agreement would have forced business establishments to purchase yearly "renewable permits" which range in price from $22 annually for a structure smaller than 2,000 square feet to $132 a year for one larger than 100,000 square feet.

"So we're establishing a new tax on businesses?" asked a dubious Trustee Dan Gron. "We're taking money from them?"

Trustee James "Mac" McDonald questioned the necessity of the fire protection district inspections in the first place.

"I don't understand why they have to go in there," McDonald said. "I don't understand why our building department can't handle it."

Anderson said the Shorewood Area Chamber of Commerce should have been consulted about the fire fees and trustees expressed interest in querying someone from the fire protection district.

"We asked for a representative of the fire department to be here tonight," said Nancy Roman, the village's director of economic development. No one from the fire protection district showed up.

The agreement also called for "activities" permits to be required for "temporary stands, booths, structures, membrane, tents, canopies, amusement rides and hot work operations," which Anderson found appropriate, at least as far as the amusement rides go.

"You always hear nightmares about carnival equipment," he said.