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Grand County fees to go up

County vehicle use was discussed during the workshop on Monday as part of a broader look at county spending.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com

Four county departments will have increased fees beginning next year in an effort to make sure they are covering the costs to fulfill the requests.

The Board of County Commissioners heard and approved on Tuesday proposals for fee changes from four departments, including the sheriff’s office, public health, community development and accounting.

“You can assess reasonable fees, not to exceed actual costs,” explained Commissioner Kris Manguso. “I think we’ve really got to be careful about charging fees and making it difficult for people to get these types of things.”



The biggest changes approved are increases to the sheriff’s office fees for contract labor, false alarms and record requests. Sheriff Brett Schroetlin explained all of the increases are justified by the labor of his staff to fulfill each request.

Anyone wanting to contract the sheriff’s office for a private event or security can expect to pay $70 an hour beginning in 2020, while false alarms will begin costing homeowners after the third instance.



Currently, all records requests are billed at $5, but this will change in 2020. Mugshots will be $10, records requests will cost $15 and both background checks and audio or photo and video records will cost $25.

The cost of a retail food establishment plan review and a public improvement development plan review both increased as well because of the labor-intensive requests. A food establishment plan review will cost $50 on top of the $100 application fee.

Public Improvement Development applications, which cost the county over $2,000 to process, will cost applicants $500 in 2020.

Finally, the commissioners approved a penalty and interest fee schedule for businesses who have unpaid marijuana sales or excise taxes. The board set the penalty rate at 10% of the unpaid tax plus .5% for each month the taxes go unpaid. It caps at 18%.

On top of that, the county will be able to charge interest on the unpaid taxes at a rate determined by the calendar year of the unpaid taxes.

All of the new fees go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

Fee20182019
Sheriff’s Office
contract labor
$50/hr$70/hr
Records request$5$10 for mugshots; $15 for records; $25 for
background checks and
audio/video/photo records
False alarmsn/aFalse alarms 1 – 3: free;
False alarm 4: $100; False alarm 5: $250
Food
establishment
review
$100$100 application fee + a $50 review fee
PID application$250$500
Marijuana sales &
excise penalty
n/a10% of unpaid taxes plus
.5% for each month unpaid;
caps at 18%

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