Erie County screwmobile drives on

One of the stories I caught that I haven’t had a chance to write about here is this gem from yesterday’s paper. Supposedly, every non-profit group selling food at local events needs a $106 permit from the county Health Department. Chris Byrd adds his analysis:

Imagine a place where not-for-profits, etc. lost a bulk of their funding from county government.

Then imagine the same county government imposing a stiff across the board fee on not-for-profits that want to have a food stand at an event.

Imagine ERIE COUNTY!

Unfortunately, you don’t need to imagine around here. Things like this just happen and then we’re stuck dealing with them. Those of us who participate in smaller non-profit groups know that fees like this may cut off yet another way to bring money into our organizations.

I’ve already emailed my legislator, Dan Kozub, about this. So far, I haven’t even been able to find any reference to this fee/permit/law on the county’s website. Hopefully he can shed more light on it.

Update: I was able to track down the page with the relevant information. Here’s a tip – if you want to find something on the illustrious Erie.gov website, use Google, not their own search. Unfortunately, other than the application, there isn’t much information on this page.