Building permits down in Swampscott

SWAMPSCOTT – Building permits in town were down almost 50 percent in January.Town Building Inspector Alan Hezekiah said in January 2008 there were 21 building permits issued in town and in January 2009 there were only 11 permits issued.”The number of permits were down for the entire 2008 calendar year,” he said. “And the people taking out permits tend to be doing smaller jobs or less work than in previous years.”Despite the decline in permits there is some good news.Hezekiah said the number of permits pulled for February 2009 were in line with February of last year.”I’m pleasantly surprised we weren’t off track in February,” he said. “We had 22 permits in February 2008 and 24 in February 2009. Maybe things are starting to turn around and people are investing in their bathrooms and kitchens.”The fee for a building permit is based on the value of construction. It costs $12 per $1,000 of construction value. Hezekiah said in 2008 the town received $174,000 in revenue from building, plumbing, gas, electric permits and inspections.”I expect that will be down somewhat at the end of fiscal ’09 based on the decline in permits issued in the first part of the fiscal year,” he said.The amount of work homeowners do is directly tied to the economy, which Hezekiah said makes it very difficult to make accurate budget predictions.”Part of the budgeting process is to predict revenues,” he said. “I guessed the level of revenue for fiscal ’09 in January of 2008 before the economy soured. My predictions were based on previous years and I would have guessed we’d have more revenue than we’ve seen so far.”Hezekiah, who just submitted anticipated revenues for fiscal ’10, admits his revenue predictions are just educated guesses.”We just don’t know where the economy is going,” he said. “We don’t know what the level of construction activity will be a year down the road.”