Durango residents will likely start paying more next year for spring and fall cleanups on their monthly utility bills.
The charge for the biannual service is expected to go up from $1.50 per month to $3 per month, according to the proposed city budget.
The increase for fall and spring cleanup services is one of several increases residents could see on their monthly bills, said City Operations Director Levi Lloyd.
The price of trash, recycling, water and sewer services are each proposed to increase by 3 percent, Lloyd said. All four increases will add $2.81 on average to a resident’s monthly bill, he said.
When adding the cost increase for the spring and fall cleanups, average monthly bills will go up $4.31 per month.
City sales tax collections have covered about half the cost of the spring and fall cleanups for years, Lloyd said. But sales tax collections have been stretched thin, and residents have asked city officials to examine what services could be paid for by user fees to help alleviate the budget crunch.
After holding many meetings with residents about the budget, city staff proposed shifting the full cost of spring and fall cleanup to monthly utility bills.
The meetings and other public outreach efforts were organized by the city ahead of the Durango City Council placing a question on the ballot to increase sales and property taxes, he said.
The city has also proposed increases to cemetery fees and facility rentals in response to public input, Assistant City Manager Amber Blake said.
Councilors will vote on the budget and the proposed fee increases in December, she said.
If the cleanup fee is approved, it will be effective on January utility bills, Lloyd said.
The increase to monthly cleanup fees will increase the city’s revenue from the estimated $95,000 it is expected to generate in 2018 to an estimated $190,000 next year, according to the 2019 draft budget.
Earlier this year, city officials discussed eliminating one of the cleanups to cut costs. But the cleanups are a popular service that residents have come to rely on and help keep the city looking clean, Lloyd said.
During the fall cleanup in October, city crews collected about 270 dump trucks of material, a bit less than what the city collects on average during fall cleanups, he said.
“This is something that definitely gets used on a widespread basis,” he said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
