posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 8:45 AM
by
klehan
Winter Haven (FL) Proposes Registration and Fees for False Alarms
To cover the costs, the Winter Haven, FL, administration is proposing three new fees that will help recoup the money. The City Commission will take action on the proposed fees at
an upcoming meeting.
City Manager David Greene said the $3 million loss in property tax revenue is the reason the fees are necessary. Greene said the proposed fees are consistent and not unlike what's being done in other cities.
Specific to false alarms, city officials said the work performed was the equivalent of 16 work weeks at an estimated cost of $19,950. Of the false alarms, 125 were at places that had a history of four or more alarms. In 2007, the number of locations that had a history of four or more false alarms rose to 164.
To cut back on the careless or improper use, the city wants to implement a $25 registration fee that can't be transferred if the alarm user moves to another location.
Failure to register the alarm would cost $100. The fee for a false alarm after the fourth and fifth occurrence would cost alarm users $50. The city expects to collect $40,000 in additional revenue.
While City Commissioner Jeff Potter agrees the false alarms need to be controlled, he doesn't agree with charging a registration fee.
"To me it's a slap in the face if you're a citizen of Winter Haven," he said. "I understand where they are going with all of this, but I don't think it's the right way to do it."
A second fee city officials want to implement is a routine fire inspection fee that would include a first re-inspection.
The inspections would be categorized by property types as commercial, institutional and industrial. The fee would be based on the building's square footage.
There would also be an escalating service fee for second, third and fourth fire safety re-inspection. The proposal also establishes a fire system installation test inspection fee.
Currently, a fire inspection fee is not charged on the first or second visit for a business' annual inspection. If the City Commission approves this ordinance, a fee would be charged for the initial and subsequent inspections.