Service charges may go higher

Mayor:?Plan on pace with cost of maintenance

By ILIMA LOOMIS Staff Writer
WAILUKU — Maui County residents would pay more for county services — from water, to garbage collection, to golfing on the Waiehu Municipal Golf Course — under Mayor Charmaine Tavares’ budget proposal for 2008-09.

Tavares has said some fees for basic services, such as water and sewers, need to increase to keep up with the cost of maintenance of systems. Other changes, such as a shift from daily to

hourly rentals of community centers and park facilities, are meant to change the way residents use services.

The Maui County Council Budget and Finance Committee is expected to discuss the proposed rates and fees Monday. If approved by the council as part of its annual budget, the new fees would go into effect July 1.

Parks Director Tamara Horcajo said the purpose of hourly rental fees for community centers, pavilions and other park facilities is to make them more readily available.

“We have very limited facilities — especially community centers and gyms — and our population is growing,” Horcajo said.

A popular facility like the Velma McWayne Santos Community Center in Wailuku currently rents for $100 per day for residents, but under the new plan would rent for $25 an hour on Friday nights, weekends and holidays, or $15 an hour on weekdays.

That means a family renting the facility for a Saturday night wedding reception could rent the hall for 10 hours for $250.

Under the past system, families would frequently rent the community center for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so they would have extra days to set up and clean, at a total cost of $300.

A group renting the hall for a two-hour Thursday night meeting would pay $30 under the new system.

Also in parks rates and fees, greens fees at the Waiehu Municipal Golf Course would go up, with the county doing away with lower rates for weekday play and “twilight” hours.

Costs for the Waiehu Golf Course have gone up, and the county’s golf fund won’t break even this year, Horcajo said.

Under the proposed new fee structure, it would cost a flat $12 for residents to play at the course at any time, $8 for retired residents, $30 for non-Maui Hawaii residents, and $55 for non-Hawaii residents.

Horcajo said too many people were showing up to take advantage of the twilight rates, crowding the course in the afternoon and making it difficult for youth golfers to practice after school.

“It slowed down the play, and we really do want to accommodate as many people on that course as we can,” she said.

Fees for basic services such as sewers and water would also go up in the proposed budget, in order to keep pace with increasing costs of maintaining infrastructure, Tavares has said.

The monthly service charge for the 5/8ths-inch water meter that would be used by most single-family homes would go up from $7.50 to $8. Bimonthly usage rates per 1,000 gallons would go up from $1.55 to $1.60 for households using less than 10,000 gallons; from $2.60 to $2.80 for customers using from 10,000 to 30,000 gallons; and from $3.50 to $3.90 for customers using more than 30,000 gallons.

Agricultural water rates would also go up, from $0.90 to $1 for customers using more than 30,000 gallons.

Included with water use bills, the county’s sewer fees will also increase. The monthly base charge for residential customers would go up from $21 to $23, and the metered usage charge per 1,000 gallons would go from $2.85 to $3.05. The usage charge is capped at 9,000 gallons for single-family homes and 6,000 gallons for multifamily apartments.

Fees for trash collection would go up from $12 to $16 per month on Maui and Molokai, and from $6 to $8 per month on Lanai, which has service only once a week.

Tavares has said refuse collection fees should be increased so the residents receiving the service will pay for the costs of collection instead of having all taxpayers subsidize it. Residential curbside trash collection is provided only to single-family residences.

Development service fees would go up significantly in the budget proposal, with increases from 17 percent to 44 percent for building permit fees, and even larger increases for electrical permits. The cost of grading permits would double, while subdivision fees would increase from $100 to $250 for filing and processing applications, and from $25 to $50 for each lot on the plans.

Public Works Director Milton Arakawa said the last time permit fees were increased was 2002, and some fees, including the subdivision filing fee, haven’t been increased since 1989.

The proposed adjustment would bring in between $800,000 and $1.2 million in additional revenues, he noted.

“It’s basically to catch up and more accurately reflect the cost of processing permits,” he said.



•Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.