Old Lyme - The building permit fee for the Lyme-Old Lyme High School renovation project could be closer to $30,000 than the speculated $400,000, First Selectman Timothy Griswold said at Monday's Board of Selectmen meeting.

The $31,200 fee proposal, which the town is still reviewing, is based on the amount of inspections town employees are expected to conduct throughout the renovation process - roughly three inspections a week for 130 weeks, Griswold said.

Following discussion with town employees and the Board of Finance, Griswold said the selectmen would propose a final fee cost at a yet-unscheduled town meeting.

The town of Old Lyme, the regional school district and the town of Lyme have been at odds in recent weeks over the expected charging of a building permit fee for the project, which the school district had long assumed would be waived based on past practices.

Old Lyme officials are adamant about charging at least some fee, whether or not they decide later on to waive the fee, because of the school district's regional setup.

Old Lyme pays about 80 percent of the cost of running the school district while Lyme pays the remaining 20.

"This is to recognize that this town is going to expend a lot of energy on this project," Griswold said.

Griswold accused school board members of spreading "misinformation," for political purposes, about how much the fee would be. He said that while the selectmen had said at their previous meeting that the fee could be as much as 1 percent of the building project's $47.8 million cost - or $478,000 - the town did not plan on charging the school district that much.

Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder said she was opposed to charging taxpayers even $30,000 for a project they are already putting money into. Those who will be conducting inspections - the sanitarian, building inspector and fire inspector - are all paid town employees whose jobs it is to conduct such inspections, she said.

"It seems to me that this is boiling down to the same history of Lyme v. Old Lyme, and it was a political football before … the school district made it a political football," Reemsnyder said.

Resident Bill Folland said he planned to begin circulating a petition for a special town meeting to amend a town law that limits the Board of Selectmen's ability to waive permit fees.

The amendment would waive building permit fees on municipal properties, including Lyme-Old Lyme school district properties, unless the school district project exceeded $5 million, he said.

"Regional School District 18 project costs exceeding $5 million will be subject to all estimated costs incurred by the building department with approval by the Board of Selectmen," the petition reads.

j.cho@theday.com