“But we need you to appear in person to verify it’s really you applying for the permit,” they say. Bull feathers! Not a single one of them is making any attempt to enforce the plumbing codes with those who waltz plumbing goods out of the big-box DIY centers. The same goods for which we must obtain plumbing permits to install legally.

They’re not bothering to chase unlicensed trunk slammers, drain cleaners and others who routinely ignore lifting permits. They aren’t licensed and many of them are constituents, which means they’re not only taxpayers, they vote! Don’t want to tick off the voters, do we? Let’s ride herd on the professional plumbing contractors instead. We can always take away their licenses and stop them from doing business.

Then there’s the $70 permit fee that gets you three visits. Additional visits are $50 each and we all know what that is meant to imply – play ball or I’ll find a reason to flunk the work. So my question is if that’s good for three visits and I only need one visit under this permit, do I get to bank the other two as a credit? You know the answer.

Last weekend, I bumped into a local township supervisor as he was picking up plumbing fixtures at the big box DIY outlet. When I inquired about his needing a plumbing permit for the work, he replied that plumbing permits were a joke and that he didn’t feel the need to pay a plumber just so he could be legal. Go figure.

Dave Yates owns F.W. Behler, a contracting company in York, Pa. He can be reached by phone at 717/843-4920 or by e-mail at .