A valid rabies certificate and a spay or neuter certificate. These may be obtained at your local 

veterinarian’s office.

State of Michigan law requires a dog to be licensed by the age of four months. You will purchase  a license in the month that your vaccination was given. For a one-year license, the rabies certificate must be valid the entire year. For a three-year license, the rabies certificate must be valid the entire three years.

The Food Law of 2000, act No. 92 of 2000, as amended requires at least one certified food manager be employed by June 30, 2009 at each licensed facility. There are three approved certified manager courses available to choose from, they include: ServSafe, National Registry for Food Professionals (NEHA) and Thompson and Prometric. Before registering for a food safety course make sure that it is an ANSI accredited program. For available courses in your area please visit the Health Department website for details or contact the Health Department at (616) 527-5341.

A temporary food permit is required when food is processed, packed, canned, preserved, frozen, fabricated, stored, prepared, served, sold or offered for sale to the public. It is a common misconception that if food is being given away for free that a food permit is not necessary when in fact a license is required. The current Food Law doesn't discriminate between food being offered for free or sold for a profit. A food license is not required when a charitable, religious, fraternal or other non-profit organization is operating a home-prepared baked good sale or serving only home-prepared food in connection with a meeting or as part of a fund-raising event. Please contact the Health Department at (616) 527-5341 to see whether or not your food event requires a food license.

If you are operating a catering service for the public you need to be licensed. To become licensed you may choose one of the following options:

• Obtain your own licensed kitchen. This kitchen must be separate from your home kitchen. All licensed kitchens must comply with the current Food Law and Food Code of Michigan. A plan review will be required prior to the licensing of the kitchen to ensure compliance.
• Operate out of a kitchen that is already licensed, but obtain your own individual license for that kitchen. We would essentially dual license the kitchen and would conduct separate inspections for the separate license holders.

The Friend of the Court now has a number of tools to use in order to enforce and collect child support monies.  The most obvious is an Income Withholding Order from the payer’s employer where child support is deducted and sent to the SDU (State Disbursement Unit) in Lansing.  They are then disbursed to the individual payee’s through direct deposit or via debit card if a payee does not specify a bank account.  Other tools for enforcement are license suspension and credit reporting. The Friend of the Court can also petition for a lien against any personal or real property.  We use parent locator as well as data base programs to find where payers are employed and thus secure Income Withholding Orders.   

Dogs are allowed at Bertha Brock Park.  They must be leashed and cleaned up after.

Residential building permits including:

• new residential
• residential addition
• residential alteration
• accessory/detached structures and demolitions

any individual may apply (proof of ownership required)
[Note: the cities of Belding and Portland issue their own permits.]

Commercial building permits:

Residential electrical, mechanical, and plumbing (trade) permits:

• owner/occupant may apply IF he/she will be doing the work
• licensed contractor must apply if owner has retained a contractor

Commercial electrical, mechanical, and plumbing (trade) permits:

Each building permit application (residential as well as commercial) must include two (2) sets of blue prints or drawings.  Plans (blue prints) for all commercial projects or a residential structure at or above 3500 square feet must contain the original signature and raised seal of an architect or engineer licensed by the state of Michigan.  Plans (blue prints or drawings) for a residential structure fewer than 3500 square feet certainly may be professionally drawn; however, you may submit your own hand-drawn plans. The drawings will need to include:

• the foundation plan
• side elevations
• the floor plan
• a wall section

Click here to view several sample drawings which will assist you with the foundation and wall section. As the floor plan and side elevations are unique to each project, you will need to prepare your own drawings for these two items.  The building official will review your plans for code compliance and will note on the plans any items you need to include or change. One set of the plans will be returned with your issued permit and plan review and one set will be retained by the county.

While Community Development staff is available to assist you in all aspects of the permit application process, we are not trained code specialists or state licensed inspectors. The county of Ionia has appointed code officials and contracts with Associated Government Services, Inc. to provide the services of licensed building, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing inspectors. These individuals are available to answer your specific code questions. Inspectors can be reached at 616.527.5374 and typically are in the office during early morning hours.