Dunbar Borough Council discusses permit fee
DUNBAR – Council learned Monday that The North Fayette County Municipal Authority (NFCMA) is planning to pass a $150 street opening permit ordinance fee onto customers. Redding Bunting, a Dunbar councilman and a member of the NFCMA board of directors said that customers will be required to pay the $750 tap-in fee in addition to another $150 that will be used for street opening fees.
In a letter sent to Councilman William Watson by NFCMA Executive Director Bob Softcheck it was explained that even though $100 of the original $150 fee is returned to NFCMA after a road has been restored NFCMA still isn’t happy that they have to pay the $150 to begin with.
Softcheck, in his letter said, “In the future the authority will be charging the $150 to our tapping fees in the borough unless a written waiver from the borough of the fee is received by this authority.”
Softcheck additionally said that the waiver applied to the $50 permit fee to open a road as well as the required $100 deposit in case the road is not restored to the satisfaction of council. Several council members said they were not happy with NFCMA’s decision to pass the charge on to customers and talked about revising a resolution to the ordinance.
In other unrelated matters, Council President Frank Zadell said two appointments to the Dunbar Borough/Township Sanitary Authority would have to be made in January. Zadell read a letter from his wife, Margaret Zadell, who said that due to ill health she would no longer be able to serve on the board.
Zadell said that his wife was on the board for two years and has three more years to go on her appointment. He also said that she would be willing to stay on the board until the end of January. Zadell said Jim Martin holds the second vacant seat. Martin’s five-year term will expire in January.
Council agreed to table the issue this month and to make the appointments next month after talking to Martin and other interested borough residents.
In other business, council passed their regular 2005 budget without a tax hike. The budget is based on the previous millage rate of .663.
Council expects to spend $166,935, collect $172,495 and has a surplus of $5,560.
On the expense side, the borough expects to spend $45,502 on general government; $16,593 on police; $8,500 on health and safety; $10,600 on housing; $44,600 on highways, roads and streets; $500 on recreation; $1,000 on engineering; $720 on the health code officer; $4,800 on the maintenance building payment; $19,500 on health insurance, $4,000 on unemployment; $7,620 on federal income taxes; and $3,000 on miscellaneous expenses for a grand total of $178,635.
The proposed spending plan shows that the borough receives $72,570 in taxes, $11,961 in license and permits, $5,000 in fines and forfeits, $25,000 from their Parker Hunter investment fund and $47,964 in rent revenue from the veterans apartments, the post office and other rental properties.
Under general government, the borough spends $3,780 on council, $720 on the mayor’s salary, $8,254 on the secretary and treasurer’s salary, $1,300 on the audit, $2,500 on legal fees, $12,000 on utilities, $2,000 on clerical supplies, $2,100 on fire hydrants and $4,800 on a revolving charge account at Lowes.
Under further business, council officially turned a portion of land, owned by them, over to the Dunbar Volunteer Fire Department.
They agreed to allow Councilman Patrick FitzGerald to hold a special Creek Project meeting with his committee.