PROVIDENCE – Spurred in large part by the complaints of business owners, the state Department of Labor and Training is working to revise the fee structure and the regulations governing biennial boiler inspections to make them less burdensome for small businesses.

The DLT is in the process of changing the payment structure to cut in half the fee that companies must pay for state boiler inspections, from $120 to $60 every two years, according to DLT spokeswoman Laura Hart.

The department for the first time also supports a change in existing law to limit the number of businesses in the state required to have boiler inspections. New DLT Director Charles J. Fogarty, who took over the agency in January, led the drive to revise the fee and the law after hearing continued protests from business owners across the state, many of them in charge of small businesses such as pizza parlors and fitness centers, Hart told Providence Business News. Business owners had failed to win DLT support for this issue in the past.

Business owners for several years have complained about the price and nature of boiler inspections, saying that in some cases inspections are not done or they are conducted in a cursory way but a business is still charged the full $120 fee every two years. Most small businesses have simple 40- to 80-gallon water heaters, rather than large-scale boilers needed to heat an entire building or complex, business owners say

Working with an updated version of a bill prepared several years ago by former state Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis, owner of a Coventry pizza parlor, lawmakers in the current session will consider redefining “places of public assembly” to eliminate many small businesses from the inspection requirements, according to Rep. Patricia Serpa, a West Warwick Democrat working with DLT on this issue.

Serpa and Hart at DLT could not say for certain how many small businesses would be exempt from the inspections under the proposed change, but they expect small eateries, gift shops and fitness centers would be among those affected. Places such as schools, theaters and hospitals still will be required to have boiler inspections once every two years, Serpa has said. Sen. Edward O’Neill, a Lincoln independent, has filed a Senate bill to match Serpa’s House version.

Officials expect the General Assembly to act on the legislative change during the current session. A special Senate task force formed last year by Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed to address small business problems also worked on this and other regulation-related issues.