Lower to Charge for Commercial Trash Pickup, Higher House Rental License Fees OK’d

VILLAS — Lower Township Council voted Mon. Sept 20 to raise mercantile fees for home rentals and to begin charging fees for commercial trash pickup for one year.
Councilman Wayne Mazurek, the lone Democrat on council, suggested a number of amendments to an ordinance that could have raised mercantile license fees for marinas, campgrounds, apartments, hotel/motels, retirement homes and mobile home parks.
He suggested no hike in license fees other than an increase for rental properties from $50 to $75 per year.
Mayor Michael Beck said the increase would bring in an additional $50,000.
Mazurek proposed the township charge a fee for commercial trash pickup, which has been available at no cost. The proposed fees would be $125 per month for 30-yard roll off containers, $70 per month for businesses with two to four rear-load dumpsters and $35 for businesses with regular cans.
“I propose that we starting charging those fees for one year to all commercial businesses commencing January 1, 2011,” he said. “I then propose that those fees will end as well as all commercial trash pickup December 31, 2011.”
He said that would give customers one year to contract with a private hauler and the township one year to “get out of the commercial trash business.”
Commercial trash customers will receive a quarterly tax bill from the tax office, said Township Manager Kathy McPherson. She said the township has about 300 commercial users.
The mayor and council were unanimous in their approval of Mazurek’s proposal.
The township is projecting a $1 million shortfall in its 2011 budget, so it is searching for new sources of revenue to prevent employee layoffs. Beck said it may be necessary in the future to revisit raising other mercantile license fees.
“If we don’t raise fees, we’re laying off workers,” he said. “At the end of the day, we have to pay our bills.”
During public comment, resident Ed Butler asked what was the difference in the dollar amount from earlier proposals to raise a wider range of mercantile fees and what council had just passed.
An earlier proposal would have raised an additional $293,164 in fee increases, said McPherson. Mazurek said the difference was about $281,000.
Beck said the figure was 50 percent of what council began with for proposed mercantile fee hikes.
Council voted to increase swimming pool use fees for the township’s community pool in North Cape May from $2 to $3.
A proposal before council last month from the township’s Recreation Advisory Board suggested $5 increases across the board for registration fees for youth cheerleading, soccer and basketball and a $10 increase for football. Beck said the fee increases were recommended two years ago but council did not consider raising them because “we didn’t need the money then.”
Councilman Tom Conrad and Deputy Mayor Kevin Lare voiced opposition to raising fees for youth participating in sports. Conrad said the advisory board had recommended charging community groups for using the Millman Center meetings.
“Seniors were removed from the resolution yet the ones hitting the kids are there and working families,” said Conrad.
Councilman Glenn Douglass said he wanted kids involved in sports and “off the streets.”
Lare said the number of youth involved in football had dropped from 204 participants to 134 this year. In total, raising sports fees would have raised an additional $7,755 in revenue, said Conrad.