Council OKs increase in taxi fares

By Adam Tobias of the Daily Times staff
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 12:28 PM CDT

The cost to ride a taxi in the city will soon be going up.

The Watertown Common Council Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution increasing the fares for the shared-ride taxi system in the city by a quarter.

The rate increases for taxi rides are as follows: adults from $2.75 to $3; children under 12 years old from $1.75 to $2; children with an adult to the same destination from $1.25 to $1.50; children between 12 and 18 years old going to the middle or high school from $2.25 to $2.50; elderly and disabled people from $1.75 to $2; prescription delivery per package from $3.50 to $3.75; and corner stop service from $1.25 to $1.50.

The changes in the rates will start on Sept. 1.

“I think that everybody understands the extraordinary increase in fuel costs which is a tremendously substantial portion of the transit system budget, but in addition to that there is a principle at stake here which began many, many years ago when we shifted from the very inefficient bus program to the shared-ride cab system,” Alderman Fred Smith said. “When that was put in place the determination would be made that with the state and federal share factored in, we would have a fee structure that allowed the system to be operated without subsidy from the general tax rolls. That has been uniformly the policy and has been followed every year.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Smith added that if the small fare increase was not implemented in the face of the extraordinary hikes in fuel costs, the city would set aside the long-standing policy of not using general tax revenues to subsidize the shared-ride taxi program.

“That would be a slippery slope and would be something extremely problematic for the future,” Smith said. “I believe this is the best step to take. It is a very modest increase and it is something that will allow us to operate for this next year even during this time of huge increases in fuel costs without subsidizing the system with property taxpayer dollars.”

Alderman Mark Kuehl pointed out that the increase in taxi fares is also the result of rising insurance premiums.

“We were in a pool where we received some favorable rates for several years and somebody, someplace finally took a look at the rates we were being charged and discovered that they were way low,” Mayor Ron Krueger added. “So, there's not only the fuel prices, but we are getting a substantial kick from increased insurance premiums.”

In other action Tuesday night, council members endorsed resolutions approving the final plat and developer's agreement for the Heron Landing subdivision on the south side of the city near Wal-Mart.

The 172-acre Heron Landing subdivision is expected to include about 235 lots for single family homes, 58 duplex units and 98 multifamily units. The subdivision also consists of 7.6 acres for commercial purposes, 5.6 acres for public parks, 18 acres of wetlands and 26.3 acres for storm water management.

The Watertown Fire Department has made city officials aware that it opposes the new subdivision because of issues with response times. The city's fire station on Jones Street is about 3 miles away from the subdivision.

“Currently it takes us about five to six minutes on a good day,” fire Chief Henry Butts said, while describing the time it takes for firefighters to get to the area of the subdivision. “Fires double in size about every 17 seconds if you don't do anything about it and when someone's not breathing, the longer you wait, the less chance you have for a successful outcome. The whole issue is about response times.”

A resolution denying a request from a Watertown firefighter who is looking for the city to pay him a supplemental income beyond the required 90 days was approved by the council.

Firefighters Chad Butler, who is on temporary disability, has received payments from the city for 90 calendar days to make up the difference between his workers' compensation payments and his normal salary.

Butler had asked Butts to petition the city to continue these payments past the 90 required days.

“When a city employee is injured on the job they get 90 days of workman's comp, which is two-thirds of their salary tax-free,” Krueger said. “The city matches the other third and that is taxable. City code says the city is liable for 90 days of payments which we have done.”

During the time for public comment at the beginning of the council meeting, Butler, who was injured on the job in April, asked the aldermen to consider extending his pay.

“I am here tonight to ask you guys to continue with my pay due to the financial hardships this has provided to me,” Butler said to the council. Butler added that he was re-evaluated Tuesday and he expects to be unable to work for at least another month.

Alderman Tony Arnett said the council feels for any city employee who suffers injuries on the job, but he added that he could not justify extending the payments because of a lack of exceptional circumstances.

“From a big picture perspective and taking into consideration the taxpayers as well, I think you have to consider that we should only do this if there were truly exceptional circumstances, because otherwise you're setting a precedent for every such claim,” Arnett said.

“The Finance Committee looking at the situation did not see that this rose to the exceptional circumstances that would merit a special exception,” he added.

Aldermen approved a resolution authorizing J.F. Ahern of Fond du Lac to install schedule 40 PVC piping at the wastewater treatment plant.

The current solids handling building centrate drain piping at the plant is almost plugged with struvite, which won't allow the centrate to drain away. City officials said it is too expensive to try and remove the struvite from the interior of the ductile iron piping.

The cost of installing the new schedule 40 PVC piping will not exceed $15,000.

A resolution amending the bond schedule for possessing instruments used for controlled substances was also approved by the council.

The resolution increases the forfeiture from $25 to $100 and the total deposit from $77.50 to $172.

Council members approved the first reading of an ordinance changing the process of how absentee ballots are handled in the city.

The ordinance proposes that all absentee ballots are kept at city hall and processed at a central location by election inspectors. The ballots would then be taken to the proper polling place.

Currently, when absentee ballots are turned in, they are taken to the specific polling places and the inspectors at the tables open and process them as though the voter would be standing there.

City Clerk Mike Hoppenrath has requested the ordinance to give some relief to the workers at the polls.

The absentee ballot request must be approved by the state before the second reading of the ordinance can be acted on by the council.