Showing posts with label user fees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label user fees. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
New TOMSA service fees on July 1
by Linda Baum
The charge for residential sewer service is increasing from $70 to $75 per quarter effective on July 1, 2014. The commercial service rate is also increasing, from $4.67 to $5.00 per 1000 gallons. The increases are per Resolution 32-2014, adopted at TOMSA’s April board meeting, and are expected to bring in an additional $520,000 in revenue annually.
Reminder: Residents with an automatic bill payment setup may need to update the amount of this recurring charge.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Middletown Township Committee Meeting 10/1/12
Last Monday night Oct. 1st, 2012, the Middletown Township Committee got together for their monthly Workshop Meeting. The meeting lasted just over an hour and turned out to be rather interesting.
After watching the video of the meeting 3 things that stood out:
There was a special hiring about the renewal of a license for some guys pawn shop in town. Evidently he purchased some jewelry from an undercover police officer without the proper documentation. This is a big NO-NO seeing how the jewelry could have been stolen. It stood out because I and others have never seen such a hearing take place at a Township Committee meeting were there was police testimony and a shop owner pleading his case to keep his license. Ultimately the Township Committee voted to suspend or revoke the license.
Secondly, there was a discussion about administering a users fee to the various sports leagues that use Township parks. Currently, various township sports leagues pay only a nominal application fee to use the sports fields around town. The fees generated only amount to ~$10K a year, which is just a mere fraction of the amount it costs Middletown to upkeep the sports fields in town. That's way so many of the fields around town are in such disrepair, too much usage and not enough money coming in to fix them.
Janet Dellet, Director of Recreation, put together a study that show other towns in the area charge an hourly fee for the use of their township owned fields and if Middletown adopted such a fee schedule, the township could generate upwards of $300K yearly that could be used to upgrade and maintain the fields.
I think this is a good idea, but I would caution against raising these fees all at once. There is the possibility that by jacking up the user fees to quickly and steeply, some sports teams or leagues could not afford to play and the kids playing would be heart. A gradual increase of fees over the next 2 -3 years would seem appropriate.
Lastly, during the public comments portion of the meeting Linda Baum's questions about the use of Bio Diesel were stunning! The township spent nearly $400K on vehicles a couple of years back toting how "Green" and cost effective they were to purchase. Now the story has changed and it has become evident that Gerry Scharfenberger's Green Team didn't do there homework or set in place a plan on how to maintain the fleet (the vehicles are not Bio Diesel compatible) and generate Bio Diesel on their own. It seems that it's more complicated than just thinking that collecting old veggie oil from local restaurants and filtering it before usage would be enough to get them by. A whole setup is needed to convert the used oil into a usable form suitable for todays more advanced diesel engines; the trucks purchased need to be retro fitted with different seals and gaskets. And to top it all off, there is now a market for used cooking oil, so the once thought of as free fuel is now to cost prohibitive to collect.
Once again, lack of planning on the part of the Township Committee has wasted the tax payers money.
As always, you can download a copy of the meeting agenda that contains the discussion items and the proposed resolutions and ordinances that were voted on or presented during the meeting. A box around an item is a link, bringing you further into the document to that resolution or ordinance. At the end of the resolution there will be a link bringing you back to the agenda. Attached to this agenda is also the monthly bill list, so that everyone can see how the Township is spending our tax dollars.
After watching the video of the meeting 3 things that stood out:
There was a special hiring about the renewal of a license for some guys pawn shop in town. Evidently he purchased some jewelry from an undercover police officer without the proper documentation. This is a big NO-NO seeing how the jewelry could have been stolen. It stood out because I and others have never seen such a hearing take place at a Township Committee meeting were there was police testimony and a shop owner pleading his case to keep his license. Ultimately the Township Committee voted to suspend or revoke the license.
Secondly, there was a discussion about administering a users fee to the various sports leagues that use Township parks. Currently, various township sports leagues pay only a nominal application fee to use the sports fields around town. The fees generated only amount to ~$10K a year, which is just a mere fraction of the amount it costs Middletown to upkeep the sports fields in town. That's way so many of the fields around town are in such disrepair, too much usage and not enough money coming in to fix them.
Janet Dellet, Director of Recreation, put together a study that show other towns in the area charge an hourly fee for the use of their township owned fields and if Middletown adopted such a fee schedule, the township could generate upwards of $300K yearly that could be used to upgrade and maintain the fields.
I think this is a good idea, but I would caution against raising these fees all at once. There is the possibility that by jacking up the user fees to quickly and steeply, some sports teams or leagues could not afford to play and the kids playing would be heart. A gradual increase of fees over the next 2 -3 years would seem appropriate.
Lastly, during the public comments portion of the meeting Linda Baum's questions about the use of Bio Diesel were stunning! The township spent nearly $400K on vehicles a couple of years back toting how "Green" and cost effective they were to purchase. Now the story has changed and it has become evident that Gerry Scharfenberger's Green Team didn't do there homework or set in place a plan on how to maintain the fleet (the vehicles are not Bio Diesel compatible) and generate Bio Diesel on their own. It seems that it's more complicated than just thinking that collecting old veggie oil from local restaurants and filtering it before usage would be enough to get them by. A whole setup is needed to convert the used oil into a usable form suitable for todays more advanced diesel engines; the trucks purchased need to be retro fitted with different seals and gaskets. And to top it all off, there is now a market for used cooking oil, so the once thought of as free fuel is now to cost prohibitive to collect.
Once again, lack of planning on the part of the Township Committee has wasted the tax payers money.
As always, you can download a copy of the meeting agenda that contains the discussion items and the proposed resolutions and ordinances that were voted on or presented during the meeting. A box around an item is a link, bringing you further into the document to that resolution or ordinance. At the end of the resolution there will be a link bringing you back to the agenda. Attached to this agenda is also the monthly bill list, so that everyone can see how the Township is spending our tax dollars.
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