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Rental fees on agenda for Carbondale council

By Blackwell thomas, The Southern

Monday, October 15, 2007 10:29 PM CDT

CARBONDALE - As City Council members consider a proposed $35 annual inspection fee on rental dwellings, officials in a handful of college towns across the state are considering similar measures.

Universities are a part of the fabric of each of these communities. But a consequence of this, many officials said, is dumpy and often unsafe housing aimed at students looking to live on the cheap.

Some city officials think inspection fees and beefed-up ordinances could be the answer.

In DeKalb, home to Northern Illinois University, Ernie Pinne, chief property maintenance inspector, said a new inspection fee is on the way, perhaps by July 2008.

"Right now we do our inspections on a complaint-by-complaint basis," Pinne said. "That works out to about 10 to 12 inspections a day."

Pinne said, with a staff of just three inspectors, including him, and a pool of 7,500 rental properties, demand has outstripped the city's ability to inspect each dwelling.

"If we go with the rental inspection fee program we are looking at doubling our staff," he said. "With the number of complaints we're getting, the overall need is great. The goal is keeping people from getting hurt and saving lives."

Pinne said the planning is still in its infancy and the fee has not been determined.

Carbondale City Manager Jeff Doherty said the proposed fee would help fund the hiring of two new inspectors, bringing the total to seven. That should be enough, he said, to ensure the city reaches its goal of inspecting its 9,000 rental dwellings at least once every three years.

In Charleston, home of Eastern Illinois University, City Manager Scott Smith said he wishes he had the opportunity to implement any kind of inspection program. Because the town's population is fewer than 25,000, state law prevents officials there from mandating inspections, much less charging a fee.

Unless they are invited inside, Smith said, city officials in Charleston have no right to inspect a property. The problem of unsafe housing has ballooned as a result, he added.

"Two times recently we were invited into a home," he said. "In one, we had about 50 mattresses stacked up in a basement within inches of the light fixtures and in another we had a five gallon-bucket at the end of ? a sewage pipe. I think you can guess what was in the bucket."

Scott Morgan, housing inspector for Normal, said the city's rental inspection fee is working. Normal, home to Illinois State University and its 20,000 students, has a multi-tiered system that differentiates between single-family units, apartments, rooming houses and multi-use spaces, such as an apartment located above a retail space. The costs range from $30 for an apartment building and $5 for each unit to $50 for a single-family home.

Morgan said Normal has 9,000 rental properties and just three inspectors to complete annual inspections. He added that the city has not fallen behind in its inspections.

In Carbondale, Doherty said the city completed about 2,200 initial inspections last year and another 2,200 follow-up inspections.

"Of the 2,200 initial inspections ? about 1,600 were found to have violations," he said. "Now those violations range from minor to significant ? but that's a number that I wish were lower."

blackwell.thomas@thesouthern.com

351-5823