Huntley, LITH to share plumbing inspectors

Lake in the Hills and Huntley are joining forces to provide plumbing inspections to save some money.

Both villages have one plumbing inspector each, and are planning to rely on their counterpart for backup services when their inspector is on vacation or otherwise busy, Huntley Village Manager Dave Johnson and Lake in the Hills Village Administrator Gerald Sagona said.

The Lake in the Hills village board approved the agreement earlier this month, and Huntley is expected to do the same at its April 28 meeting.

Under the agreement, each village will pay the other $40 per hour for backup plumbing inspections. That’s half the $80-per-hour rate that both villages are currently paying private companies when they need backup.

“The motivation is to have intergovernmental cooperation and also save some money,” Sagona said. “We are in difficult financial times; we are looking for the best way to perform our services for residents.”

“Instead of paying a higher rate, we thought that we’d work with our neighbor to provide services based on everybody’s workload and schedule,” Johnson said. “I think in the end it’s a good example of neighbors working together to ultimately save cost.”

Johnson said he anticipated the new agreement to be implemented in May after a meeting between the two village’s building departments.