It’s been a good year for building permits in Webster County.

Last year the county issued 93 building permits, said Planning and Zoning Administrator Chad Bahr.

This year the county is already up to 83.

“I’d like to reiterate to the public that out in the county, building permits are required for new buildings and new land uses,” Bahr said at the Tuesday morning Webster County Board of Supervisors meeting.

This applies to farmers too, when they are putting up a new machine shed, for instance, Bahr said in response to a question from Supervisor Keith Dencklau. But they don’t have to pay.

“Yes,” Bahr said. “If it is found to be ag exempt, there is no charge.”

Permits are also required for mobile buildings that are not fixed to the ground, Bahr said, as long as they are 120 square feet or larger.

“Those who do erect a building, start a new land use, and it comes to our attention, there is a tripling of the fee,” Bahr said. “So our highest fee is $1,000; the worst case scenario would be $3,000. We would send an invoice out on that. Some people have paid the triple fee this year.”

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The supervisors also approved purchase of a new pup trailer for the secondary roads department.

This is a 2019 Palmer Triple Axle Pup Trailer, but was purchased from Hiway Truck Equipment at the purchase price agreed upon in December 2015.

“They agreed to honor the price,” Dencklau said.

The board approved the purchase on a 4-1 vote, with Dencklau voting no.

“We’ve been talking about instead of buying pups, buying a semi-trailer,” Dencklau said. “We’ve been talking about instead of hauling rock on a real heavy truck that’s set up for snow removal, we could haul probably — comparing a tandem axle truck to a semi, you can probably haul three times as much. But if you pull a pup behind it, you can add another, I forget the tonnage, but it’s still not as much as a semi.

“It’s more economical to haul with a semi.”

He said the county plans to buy a new semi truck next year to pull the two semi trailers it owns now.