Online pay options help Health Department complete license renewals

Health Director Michelle Feeley reported to the Board of Health this week that all but 14 of the city’s restaurants, retail stores and tobacco stores have renewed their licenses for 2026.

“We’re happy that it’s 14. We’ve had 50,” she told the board.

Feeley said that her department is still waiting on renewals from nine tobacco, three retail and two food institutions. Every year the Health Department requires that any such institution renew its license by Jan. 1, which involves filling out a form and paying a licensing fee.

Many renewals were already completed by October, Feeley said. She added that renewals were made easier this year because the department now offers online options for paperwork and payments, which has made it more convenient for businesses to turn in paperwork.

Feeley said her department had already reached out multiple times to notify the 14 remaining stores that they needed to submit their licensing paperwork and fees. The Board of Health authorized her to give those stores a final deadline for license renewal and then close the businesses until they had renewed their licenses by that date.

The board also voted to change requirements for 2027 to incentivize early renewal, automatically authorizing the department to close businesses that had not renewed their licenses by ten days after the Jan. 1 renewal deadline.