Rather than stall a $13 million high school renovation project before it began four years ago, Greenville Area School District reluctantly paid Greenville borough more than $45,000 for a building permit for the project, school officials said Tuesday.

While municipalities have a right to charge nonprofit groups or institutions or other taxing bodies for building permits, many observe a good-neighbor policy and don't charge the fee.

"We requested a waiver to the fee, but the borough refused to waive it," said school board President Brian W. Scott.

Rather than fight the matter in court, the board decided after several months to pay for the permit. "We were not happy about it. But we were told by our solicitor (then Archie O. Wallace) that if the borough refused to waive the fee, it had to be paid," Scott said.

"Our project had to go forward, so we paid the fee," Scott said.

The high school project finished on time and under budget in March 1999, said Business Manager Lynda P. Holm.

To reduce the cost of the building permit, the district broke down the $13 million project into two parts -- that which needed to be covered by a permit and that which did not. Items included in the overall project cost such as furniture did not need to be covered by a building permit, Scott said.

The district's $16.4 million renovation project -- which also included a $3.4 million renovation of Hempfield Elementary School in Hempfield Township -- was supported by a 26-mill tax hike over six years, Mrs. Holm said.

At $45,240, the building permit for the high school project amounted to 1.4 mills in taxes, Mrs. Holm added.

Hempfield Township supervisors did not require the district to pay for a permit for the Hempfield Elementary project, Scott said.

"Our theory was that it was like double-dipping," said township Supervisor Gary Hittle.

"The money for the permit would have had to come from somewhere, and we felt that if we charged for the permit, our taxpayers would be the ones paying for it. Our people already pay enough school taxes," Hittle said.

Hittle said the township does not charge nonprofit groups such as schools and churches for building permits.

Greenville Borough Council President Richard S. Houpt said he was unaware the school board had paid the borough for a building permit.

But Houpt said borough policy has been to require anyone who builds in the borough to pay for a permit. Thiel College had to pay for a permit when it began its student center project in late 1997, Houpt said. He said he could not remember any other times when the policy was debated.

Hermitage has a similar policy on building permits. Permits were required for two recent school projects, according to Hermitage School District Business Manager Gene Fornadel. A decade ago the district paid about $7,000 for a permit for a project at Artman Elementary, while general contractor HHSDR footed the bill for a permit for the district's ongoing $23 million high school project, Fornadel said. Fornadel said the district negotiated a lower fee for the Artman project.