Island County Board of Heath hikes fees

Island County Board of Health voted last Monday to raise all Department of Environmental Health fees by 4 percent and add a 3 percent technology fee.

Only septic-related fees were spared. The on-site septic inspection fee will remain at $62, the price of the Septic 201 class is still $25 and instructional video $5.

Aaron Henderson, environmental health director, said the fee increases were necessary to fund the department, which operates on a 100 percent cost-recovery basis. The department is not subsidized by the current expense fund, but recoups its operating expenses in the form of fees.

“Every year,” Henderson said, “the cost of doing business goes up. Periodically, then, we have to adjust our fees to reflect that.”

With that in mind, the department proposed the 4 percent increase. The board of health approved the increase, Henderson said, and the commissioners encouraged an additional hike of 3 percent.

They envisioned the 3 percent increase as a separate funding source for technologies, allowing continued maintenance of a new on-site database and bringing a food service inspection program online.

Rather than filling out paperwork, to be transferred to a database later, food inspectors will be able to use computers and handhelds in the field, streamlining efficiency and customer service.

For these reasons, Henderson said, “It’s very exciting to me to see that dedicat- hikes fees

ed funding.”

In addition to the increases, several other aspects of the fee schedule changed as well.A

new category, mobile carts, was added to the food program. Previously, mobile carts were lumped in the same category as restaurants with no seating, a $600 inspection fee. Under the new category, mobile carts pay only $436.

Henderson said the department also adopted a more equitable tiered fee structure for their drinking water program.

Beginning Jan. 2, the updated fee schedule will be available online at www.islandcounty. net/health.