Alna's updated list of permit and other fees is meant to be user-friendly and the fees, fair, Alna Third Selectman Coreysha Stone said July 17. Among the updates, the board set a voluntary, annual business permit renewal at $25; the voluntary part is because Stone learned from Maine Municipal Association, a town cannot charge for a business permit just to make money.

The revenue has to come from the town doing something and, other than listing the business publicly, there is no labor for the town in renewing a business permit, so the town can’t charge, Stone said. That differs from the initial business permit, because those go to the planning board, so the town can charge a fee, she said. 

Selectmen set that at $25 for businesses less than 250 square feet, including parking and storage areas; and $50 for businesses more than 250 square feet. 

As for renewal, Stone said, "We do want to encourage businesses to register, because it's something that is helpful for us to know, and something that the state is asking for us to start tracking." Thus, the fee schedule lists a voluntary, annual registration. The schedule says to please pay by Sept. 1 “to have your business listed in the annual town report and town website.”

The town report has long listed local businesses; the website listing is new. First Selectman Nick Johnston said he heard from a business owner, there is a better chance of someone finding them via the town website than from flipping through the town report.

New to the fees list are ones for blasting permit requests: $30 for non-commercial, $500 for commercial; and commercial solar farm requests: $500 for up to a megawatt; $5,000 for a farm greater than a megawatt, up to 50 megawatts on up to 20 acres of land.

Discussing the blasting ones, Stone told the meeting at the town office and over Zoom, "That is new for us, to be charging any money on that permitting process. But these amounts seem to correlate fairly consistently with other communities in the state ..."