City mulls possibilities in charging cleanup fee
Out of all the possible fee increases Grand Junction’s city councilors are considering, charging for the free Spring Clean Up program is turning into a messy idea.
For years, Grand Junction residents have shared a riutal a couple weeks each spring of dumping many of their unwanted items onto the streets in front of their homes for the city to haul away. The program is free to residents, but costs about $250,000 a year to implement.
Councilors are considering charging residents a $10 yearly fee for the service, but they were no closer to finalizing that plan during a Monday night workshop.
“I’m just concerned about a $10 fee,” said Mayor Phyllis Norris, citing the anticipated pushback from residents. “I think we have created it, it is a part of the city service. I think it is part of our general fund and we leave it there.”
Norris said she is concerned because the city already is raising rates on water, sewer and trash this year. She wanted to see the accumulated increases on those bills before considering adding another one to the list. City staff has said the fairest way to add a charge for Spring Clean Up would be possibly $1 a month for 10 months on sewer bills.
Councilor Chris Kennedy argued that councilors already are increasing fees in other areas because of lean revenues, so the city would be cheating itself by not being able to offer other services, such as fixing potholes.
“Just because we’ve never charged for it, doesn’t mean we couldn’t,” Kennedy said.
“We can’t afford traffic police, but we can afford this nicety?” Councilor Rick Taggart chimed in.
Police Chief John Camper has said city police aren’t issuing many traffic tickets because they are busy in other areas of law enforcement.
Councilors will bring back the issue of fees for the Spring Clean Up program at a future meeting, they said. Councilors are expected to pass all fee increases with a resolution during an upcoming public meeting before the 2016 budget is approved.
Meanwhile, councilors agreed with increases for ambulance services and a host of increases related to Grand Junction Fire Department services. Currently, patients pay $15 a mile for ambulance transportation service, but the city is considering increasing the cost to $19 per mile. Other increases include rates to patients when an ambulance is dispatched and responds to an emergency but a person refuses ambulance transport to a hospital. An example might be when an ambulance and crew responds to a diabetic patient who is then stabilized by emergency workers, said Grand Junction Fire Chief Ken Watkins. An ambulance and crew costs $100 an hour, but that would be increased to $150 an hour.
Other increases include charges for fire inspections, fire alarm plan reviews and fire sprinkler plan reviews. Costs of many of the permits obtained from the fire department also are poised to increase. For example, a burn permit for both seasons may increase $10, from $15 to $25 in 2016.
Swimmers at the city’s pools will pay a little more next year. Adult, senior and youth daily admissions will increase 25 cents to $5 for adults and to $3.75 for youths and seniors.
Unlimited golf season passes are set to decrease from $430 to $375 a year in 2016. Limited passes increase to $375 a year, in the hopes that more season passes will be sold, said Rob Schoeber, the city’s director of parks and recreation.
Councilors had requested that Schoeber increase fees 10 percent across the board for all recreation programs, but Schoeber said that would be too difficult. Councilors on Monday night agreed to allow the department to find ways to make up its $10,000 net loss in programming.
Councilors have yet to discuss fee increases for municipal court.
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