CITY TRASH, SEWER FEES TO GO UP

A split Cape Girardeau City Council gave initial approval of a plan to raise city sewer and solid waste fees despite the objections of residents who attended Monday's meeting.

Councilman Melvin Gateley asked that the board postpone a hike in residential trash fees until after a "citizens' task force" was formed and could make a recommendation on trash fees and billing methods.

The motion failed 4-3 as Mayor Gene Rhodes and Councilman Doug Richards voted with Gateley, and council members Mary Wulfers, David Limbaugh, Al Spradling III, and Melvin Kasten voted to hike the trash fees.

The council unanimously increased sewer fees.

The fee hikes were part of the overall proposed city budget for fiscal year 1992-93. If final approval is granted later this month, the average monthly sewer fees for a typical city customer would increase from $7.73 to $9.92, and the trash fee would increase from $8.90 to $10.54.

Gateley said he wasn't comfortable raising the residential trash fees without considering alternatives.

At a special budget study session last week city staff members told the council that without the fee hike the city's solid waste fund would "go in the red" about $20,000 per month.

But Gateley said Monday that he learned from Assistant City Manager Al Stoverink that there would be no revenue loss in July and that August and September losses which wouldn't include $90,000 in leaf removal costs would total less than $16,000 each month.

"I think if we had a task force in place by the next meeting there would be no loss of revenue," Gateley said. "There would be none in July, and in August and September it might not be too large, and we could get a report by the first of October."

Larry Godfrey of 1732 Rampart said he also was opposed to increased service charges in the city. He said too many residents are on limited incomes.

"A lot of people in Cape Girardeau just can't afford it," Godfrey said. "I think this city should take this into consideration before you raise the rates."

Lynnette Berry of 822 Pheasant Cove was more adamant. She complained that trash fees in other communities aren't as high as Cape Girardeau's rates, even though the city has essentially cut service by reducing trash collection to once weekly in lieu of a recycling collection.

Berry said Poplar Bluff charges $7.75 for once-a-week collection and $9.75 for twice weekly.

"You guys keep raising things, raising things, raising things, and I guess maybe we'll just have to move out of the city," she said.

Miki Gudermuth urged the council to adopt a volume-based billing plan for trash and recycling collection.

Despite the objections, Wulfers said the fee increase is inevitable to meet growing solid waste and sewer costs. She said a delay would be irresponsible.

"I don't believe it's a fiscally responsible amendment for us as council members placed in a position to make a hard decision," she said. "Things are just too tight, in my opinion, to put off the increase."

Wulfers said formation of the task force, which she supports, and consideration of the fee increase are separate matters and should remain so.

"It is not, in my opinion, prudent or wise for a decision on fees to be left to citizens," she said. "That is our job. To get input from the community is wise, but to give a task force the responsibility to determine what a fee should be for a city service, I don't believe is right."

But Rhodes said the council would only give the task force the authority to recommend action by the council.

"We're not turning authority over to the committee," he said. "I feel that we have too many people on limited incomes.

"For people out there in the city a dollar means everything, and they've been `dollared' to death."

Limbaugh said he agreed with Wulfers. He said he doubted a citizens' group would ever favor a trash fee increase regardless of how compelling its reasons.

"As a council, we have access to information that citizens might not have, and the staff has access to things we don't," he said. "We've been told by our staff of technical experts we do need an increase."

Limbaugh said he agreed citizens ought to examine the billing method and whether "volume-based" billing should be implemented here. But he said he didn't think the council "ought to send a signal that we might not have to increase fees when we know we do."

He said much of the increased costs are from unfunded federal and state mandates beyond the city's control.

Spradling said that by postponing the hike the council would only impose a much higher increase on residents once the raise went into effect.

"I think $1.64 now, while none of us like it, is something we have to do," he said. "The general public's not going to like anything we do on this.

"Unfortunately, it's something the federal and state government's imposed on us without any money allocated for it."

Richards said he supported Gateley's amendment. He said he also wanted to wait for the task force's recommendation.

"I cannot turn my back on the citizens who elected me," he said. "I certainly feel that raising fees at this time the majority of people I've talked with do not want this fee increase."