Published: March 09, 2008 11:17 pm      

Ebensburg settles building code spat

EBENSBURG — The borough is reaching out to businesses to explain building codes and permits, including recent changes in requirements.

But at the same time, borough officials are threatening to withhold payment to the regional authority that handles its code enforcement unless purse strings are tightened.

The two actions are unrelated, but they do illustrate the complexity of Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code and permits and inspections businesses owners must deal with.

The Ebensburg Main Street Partnership held an outreach seminar on Thursday to answer questions about maintenance and code issues.

And at the last council meeting, borough officials balked at price increases for Cambria-Somerset Council of Governments, the regional agency that handles code enforcement for the borough.

Ebensburg council members twice tabled a motion to hike the building permit fees, while urging COG to cut expenses.

Council members also refused to adopt COG’s budget for 2008, partly because of the requirement for municipalities to pay annual dues in order to participate in the codes enforcement program.

Ebensburg has been a strong supporter of COG’s regional codes program, which allows municipalities to share services rather than each hiring its own codes staff.

But borough Manager Dan Penatzer told council that the borough should pull out and hire its own staff if COG did not agree to several cost-saving measures.

COG executive board members since have agreed they would eliminate a staff position, recalculate permit revenue from actual fees before increasing fees, submit a balanced budget and restructure municipal dues.

In response, Ebensburg council paid the borough’s dues for the year and adopted the new building permit fees.