Town of Highlands increases fire inspection prices

Posted 1/22/25

At its meeting on January 13, the Highlands Town Board voted to increase the prices for required fire inspections for multi-family residential and business properties. The price for residential …

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Town of Highlands increases fire inspection prices

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At its meeting on January 13, the Highlands Town Board voted to increase the prices for required fire inspections for multi-family residential and business properties. The price for residential properties was $25 plus $5 per unit. That was raised to $50 plus $10 per unit. The price for commercial properties was $50, that’s been raised to $75. The board also approved adding a “reinspection fee” of $50 to the town code.

In related Building Department matters, the board also acknowledged Supervisor Bob Livsey’s plan to look for a 29 hour per week code inspector to handle those fire inspections and other building safety matters. Finding that person may be difficult, Deputy Supervisor Rich Sullivan noted, because of a shortage of qualified inspectors in the area. Previously the town’s engineering firm, Lanc & Tully, had a person on staff to handle those matters, but now does not.

The town will canvas the Orange County list for candidates.

In other matters from the meeting:
- Livsey noted that he transferred $63,995, $107,407 and $59,757 in recent weeks to cover the town’s bills. Some of those larger items were $45,108 to MVP – Health insurance for January; $9165 and 4650 to O&R for electricity; $13,058 to Rockland County Solid Waste for tipping fees and sludge removal; $28,800 for the THAC Service Award program; $9350 to Esco Home Improvements for renovations in the court office; $20,081 to Edmunds Govtech for 2025 software maintenance and licensing; and $7230 to Cargill Incorporated for road de-icer salt.

- The board went into an executive session after the public meeting to discuss its Work from Home policy.

Livsey noted that the town received a written “slap on the wrist” from the state’s Agriculture & Markets Department because the town does not currently have a dog pound. He said once he called and, again, explained that the old one was washed away by the July 9, 2023 flood and a new one is being built, “we are now all squared away,” the supervisor said. “They just want to see the finished shelter when it is done.”

- Sullivan spoke about how the Village of Highland Falls “represents about three-fourths of the work” in the community in the Building Department. He said in 2024 there were 105 project applications in the village and 66 in the town; 108 permits issued in the village and 66 in the town; 146 complaints in the village and 51 in the town; 131 projects in the village and 58 in the town; and 704 inspections in the village and 260 in the town.

- Councilmember Nancy Sporbert said the Town of Highlands Ambulance Corps responded to 78 calls in December, calling it a “crazy busy month”. They were able to answer 70 of those, with no driver for one and the ambulance already out when the other seven calls came in. When the THAC can’t respond to a call, other area ambulance services provide back up. In 2024, she added, the THAC had 647 calls, with 615 able to be answered. “That brings me to my monthly reminder that if you have some volunteer hours to give, the ambulance corps could use your help,” she closed.

- Finally, the board agreed to raise the payment to the cleaning service that cleans Town Hall five days a week. The current price is $1175 a month; it will increase by $100 a month.