MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Morgantown officials are on track to to increase the fire service fee in order to keep 12 SAFER grant firefighters.
Council members have declined to increase the municipal service fee and focused on the fire fee because the users of the service would pay the fee.
Councilor Barry Wendell wants the city to negotiate for a portion of the Mon County Fire Levy.
“The fire fee that’s going to come up in the levy pays for the volunteer fire departments, but we still have to pay that in the city,”Wendell said,”My question is why does the county-wide levy not pay for our fire department.”
The proposed FY 2020-21 budget includes a 10 percent fire fee increase, but City Manager Paul Brake told council members adding another 13 percent would provide enough funds to keep the 12 SAFER grant firefighters. Brake stipulated the fire fee increase does not solve the problem, additional money would be required in the next budget to keep the firefighters on staff.
“That is an additional $33, so we go from $145 to $179 for the average homeowner,”Brake said,”For the average homeowner you’re talking $3 per month.”
Councilor Jenny Selin bemoans the prospect of paying more taxes, but if you want good service you have to pay for it.
“I don’t like paying taxes and other people here don’t necessarily like to pay taxes,”Selin said,”But, it’s what you do to get a higher rating and a quicker response rate.”
Deputy Mayor Rachel Fetty told council members she was ok with a budget that allowed the positions to be lost through attrition. She continued that council has opportunities to increase revenue.
“It’s not the average citizen that’s using all of these services all the time, it’s the average elderly person, it’s the average sick person possibly,”Fetty said,”And why don’t we have a fee for landlords who have empty buildings they let get set on fire, why don’t we have a fee for that?”
For some time, city officials have considered a hazard classification class system that would require property owners to pay a fire fee based on the type of business and safety issues that could arise in a fire.
“We’ve been talking about this hazard fee forever and I don’t know why we don’t have one yet,”Fetty said,”Part of the annexation was going to involve looking at every single property to see which ones were hazardous and could handle a hazard fee.”
Morgantown city council will hold the second reading of the budget on Tuesday, March 17 at 7 p.m.