Stookey,
Columbus, Ohio is even worse. To submit drawings the state requires a PE Seal, Architect Seal or NICET III/IV Signature.
Fine, excellent idea in my book.
State licenses are required but in addition to the state license Columbus requires a city license and to get that you have to pass a 50 question one hour timed fitters test given by the state fire marshals office.
In addition to the $100 annual state license the City of Columbus requires an annual $350 fee to "register" the NICET certificate holder plus another $350 fee to license the "responsible person" which must be a holder of the fitters license. The holder of the fitters license (an employee) is the one that has to sign for the permit. I'll never figure the rationale for that other then Columbus wants to extort nearly $1,000 a year from any company wishing to do business there.
But while city sprinkler permit fees are among the highest in the nation I must come to their defense and say with hundreds of building department employees and literally over 200 building department owned cars (you can see the annex parking lot just off I-71 overflowing with them) their overhead is high and they got to make millions to keep the city building department afloat from somewhere.
Yeah, I am pretty bitter when it comes to the over-bloated bureaucracy of the Buckeye state.
