Posted on 07/06/2004 5:33:09 PM PDT by wjersey
Kennett Square, Pa. July 7, 2004 — The next time residents in Kennett Square pick up a can of paint for an at home paint job, they'd better pick up a permit too. Al Willard/KENNETT SQUARE, PA.: "I actually couldn't believe that it was true. It would seem too bizarre."
That's the reaction from homeowners about a controversial vote in Borough Council this month, one that has put Mayor Leon Spencer in the hot seat. He broke a 3 to 3 tie over plans to enforce an 8 year old law that requires permits for paint jobs, wallpapering, carpet installation tile jobs, and the like.
Mayor Leon Spencer/KENNETT SQUARE, PA.: "It comes down to an issue of safety."
Jenny O'Clock/KENNETT SQUARE, PA.: "What they're saying is it's to protect us, so are they going to say that you can't smoke in your home, or you cant drink in your home and we're worried you're going to fall down the stairs."
Mayor Leon Spencer: "The spirit of the law is not that at all. It's about educating people to think of things like the difference between what is UL approved and UL listed really means."
Jenny O'Clock and her husband Mel are interior designers who say lawmakers in Kennett Square have gone too far.
Mel O'Clock/KENNETT SQUARE, PA.: "The board is trying to get too much power and I object to that tremendously."
Residents who are as fired up as the O'Clocks are over the regulations say they'll be at the Fire Hall on July 19th when the issue will be discussed, or rather debated at a public hearing.
The Mayor admits he hopes the regulations will be amended after the hearing.
Mayor Leon Spencer: "My only other hope is that there will be an odd number of council members there, that I won't have to break a tie (laughs)"
Mayor Leon Spencer: "The spirit of the law is not that at all. It's about educating people to think of things like the difference between what is UL approved and UL listed really means."Uh, UL doesn't list, or approve, paint.
No doubt there's a permit fee involved here, and that's what it's really all about. Besides, do-it-yourself interior work "permits" are virtually unenforcable.
-Eric
I just re-roofed my house with new shingles. A building inspector stopped by to see my roofing permit. I told him I have been in the construction trades for 19 years and he was free to inspect my work if he wanted too. He told me he could make me remove it all and I told him I could charge him for trespassing. He left and hasn't been back.
In Houston if you are gonna do home improvement on the outside, start on friday night and be done by monaday morning, once it's built there is very little they can say or do.
Nothing new here. It's not about safety, though. It is about property taxes.
How many are in the family? Just the Two O'Clocks? Three O'Clocks, Is it a large family like the Noons?
...and they have three children named Eight, Nine and Ten.
Only until they start offering "crime stopper" type monetary awards to folks that can turn you in.
I can't believe this. Kennett is out in the middle of Chester County, which is largely GOP. Is that some sort of Hillary Clinton nanny state enclave or something?
Is free country, no?
More and more, everyday, this country is becoming like a police state in so many matters.
If we had the law in my town, I would want someone to turn me in every time my wife says, "it's time to repaint again."
Legitimate power comes from the consent of the governed.
"Is free country, no?"
NO!
the 'issue of safety'......the last refuge of a scoundrel
That's easy, been there, done that.
"UL listed" means someone has paid Underwriters Labs some money.
"UL approved" means that someone has paid Underwriters Labs even more money.
Mayor Leon Spencer/KENNETT SQUARE, PA.: "It comes down to an issue of safety."
(sigh...)
I'm beginning to believe Michael Moore's assertion that we're officially a nation of idiots.
The only thing that amazes me any more is that there are still some people who don't realize that it is a police state! The fact that there are people fatter than I am does not necessarily mean that I am skinny and the fact that there are countries more repressed than America does not necessarily mean that we are free!
What will a house painting permit do to help or improve safety? Seriously-- what are we talking about? The quality of the paint to be used? The use of ladders? Synthetic brushes versus natural?
Don't get it...
I am breathing whitout a license! Arrest Me.
I hate to paint and I learned early on that the wife was a perfectionist and all I had to do was screw up the paint job and she would take over and never let me paint again.
Same thing worked on mowing the lawn too...leave a little strip here and there...been working for over 30 years!!!!
Let us count the number of lives that will be saved by the House Painting Permit Department.
Around here, that simply means you were supposed to pay him. Of course there ARE places here in the Gay State that would have addressed the issue differently. One fondly thinks of Boston' old North End for example, where not that many years ago someone like that BI was found tied to a pier in the Harbor. Unfortunately, the tide had cycled a few times, first....
Look at the process of building a home. The owner hires a licensed and bonded engineer, architect and contractor. These people are educated, experienced and insured to the hilt in order to do business legally. Yet, the building department requires permits go through them, giving them oversight and final say on codes, designs and impacts - sometimes in areas where they sometimes have little working knowledge.
In order to secure a permit a homeowner must deliver multiple set of plans to be checked and scrutinized (critiqued) by governmental seat warmers. The licensed engineer, architect and contractor must be watched every step of the way. The homeowner must pay fees for the privilege of this 'service' and the final step of being granted the permit is usually to sign a waiver saying that the county or municipality is not liable for anything related to the construction or responsible for warranting any of the mandates they place on the granting of their permits.
The cost of permits doesn't usually increase the general fund. It normally comes short of paying the staff and facility overhead of the building department. So, the overage must be compensated for out of the funds collected in taxes for services. In many areas building departments are overburdened and short staffed even after increasing their bureaucracies and find themselves sending permit applications and plans to private agencies for code compliance.
The implication here is that there are enforcers payed to patrol the streets during the day - which is itself sufficient comment on government's motivations.
It's crap like this that has caused me to set one foot outside the US with regard to business dealings and such.
I agree with you to some degree.
But, the reality freedom is often relative, and there are different measures.
When there is an officer from the "Ministry of Interior" on virtually every street corner, like there is in Cuba, then I'll admit we're in a police state.
Remember this is a socialist city, mot the US. In Texas you can prety much do what you want outside the city limits.
Leftists (who love to proclaim themselves "Liberals"--a misnomer, of course--they are the opposite of liberal) would love the Taliban. They want to set the rules, that's all. There is no limit to the oppression they would wreak if they had their way. Any excuse will do. As Aesop observed more than 2,000 years ago: "Any excuse will serve a tyrant."
The purpose of such nusance permiting is to track home values. If you put in new tile they can assess your house more.
There is a neighborhood in Houston that wished they had a paint permit in place. A color permit. A young couple bought a lot in a neighborhood of 40/50 year old houses. They built a huge 2 story stucco box & painted it stop sign yellow with red-violet window trim & purple doors. The neighborhood association tried to stop them but there was nothing in the restrictions about paint color. I'll bet there is now.
I suspect the real reason behind this permit is the local house painters association probably out to stiffle competition. Also make it more difficult for do-it-yourselfers. Bottom line is more business for the house painters.
It seems like everything is a crime.
bttt
Four O'Clocks rock!
It's all about revenue.
I don't think we have to have a permit unless it affects the outside of the house. The yellow house I was talking about is in the next subdivison to mine. I'll bet every subdivision around here now ha ammended their regulations to include color. The yellow house is a horror.
Is it the city or the neighborhood association? How would they know if you replaced your WH?
makes sense, maybe. If you're a democrat, maybe. A really stupid democrat.
You sir are truly a genius. A great pearl of wry wit.
Thanks for the laugh.
Hilltop
I was raised in Chester County, although I have not lived there in almost 20 years, my family is still there. While it is still GOP, the influx from Philadelphia and Wilmington has brought in lots of soccer moms and Volvo and Vivaldi yuppies living in McMansions who have seriously tilted the balance. The place used to go about 75-25 GOP, but those numbers have dwindled considerably over the past 25 years or so. Bush carried it, but not by much last time.
Ha ha HA ha!
What does wallpapering have to do with UL-anything?
LOL!
I hear ya. I'm here on the front lines in Delaware County. During the LA riots we were literally stocking up on ammo (both my folks are into competition pistol shooting). Living within spitting distance of Chester does that to you.
Dare them to arrest everyone in town who fails to get a permit. Choke the courts. Overfill the (probably) few jail cells there are. Shake it up, wake 'em up.
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