Morgantown City Council will consider first reading of an ordinance enacting a 23% increase in municipal fire fees when it convenes on Tuesday.
The increase in fees will take effect in the 2021 fiscal year, which begins July 1, and is being implemented in an effort to maintain 12 firefighter positions, which have thus far been funded on a three-year sliding scale through a federal SAFER grant that is set to expire.
Outgoing City Manager Paul Brake said it will cost approximately $1.2 million annually to keep the positions. The fire fee increase will cover $770,000 of that. The final $93,000 in grant dollars will be used and the rest will come from the city’s new 1% sales tax, which also goes into effect on July 1.
Fire fees are based on square footage. The increase will bump the existing multiplier —7.6 cents per square foot — to 9.42 cents.
The difference, Brake explained, will be about $33.44 annually, or $2.79 a month on a 2,000-square-foot home.
Structures exceeding three floors will pay an additional 5.95 cents per square foot for space above the third floor — up from 4.84 cents.
The fire fee ordinance also sets up hazard classifications to be presented by Fire Chief Mark Caravasos by the end of October.
According to the draft ordinance, those hazard classifications will be implemented “to ensure the fire protection service charges imposed upon users adequately fund the particular response obligations of the Fire Department with respect to activities that create greater community danger and demand additional capabilities and resources.”
Brake said those hazard classifications would be implemented ahead of the 2022 fiscal year.
In other city news, the Morgantown Utility Board asked the city to issue bonds for the purpose of replacing a 2010 bond issue used to fund upgrades to MUB’s water treatment facility, on Don Knotts Boulevard.
MUB General Manager Tim Ball said the refinancing would likely save between $200,000 and $300,000 annually due to lower interest rates as well as the fact that the 2010 bonds are taxable, and the corresponding rebates offered by the U.S. Treasury on taxable bonds were reduced substantially in 2011.
Ball said the savings will help offset roughly $350,000 in monthly losses due to COVID-19, which is also playing havoc with the bond market and interest rates, making the timeline uncertain.
The city will secure bond counsel and an underwriter at MUB’s expense, to be paid out of the proceeds of the bonds.
COVID-19 has also delayed a planned inflation-based rate increase for MUB customers.
Ball ensured council that the rate increase will not be used to recoup COVID-19-related losses, but delays related to the virus will impact rates nonetheless.
“The longer we end up waiting for the economy to recover — and we won’t pursue that increase until the economy has recovered — but the longer that takes, the bigger impact inflation will continue to have on the calculation of that rate increase,” Ball said, adding that it would likely be late 2020 or early 2021 before the higher rates are pursued.
MUB Spokesman Chris Dale said preliminary figures put the now delayed increase in the range of 6%-8%, though exact calculations were never completed.
Lastly, the city continues to consider moving to four, 10-hour days for much of its administrative staff.
Interim City Manager Emily Muzzarelli said the change would initially be implemented as a one-year pilot program running from this July 4 to July 3, 2021.
An employee survey indicated 69% of the employees to be affected support the move, as do 65% of the city’s department heads.
Under the new schedule, the impacted buildings — city hall 430 Spruce St. — would be open from 7 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and closed on Friday.
The city’s police, fire and airport personnel would not be included, nor would personnel needed to operate BOPARC facilities. The city’s public works department is also not included in the pilot plans.
While such changes can be made administratively, Muzzarelli said city administration would prefer to have the support of council.
TWEET @BenConley_DP
