Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 23, 1994 TAG: 9408230080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But in a vote that may mark the municipal-government equivalent, Roanoke City Council on Monday actually cut fees the city charges for copies of water, sewer, tax and zoning maps.
That's ``cut'' as in ``slashed,'' in some cases by more than 80 percent.
For example, on Friday the city would have charged you $16 for a 26-by-36-inch map of your neighborhood. As of today, the same map will cost $3, a difference that may leave some residents doing a double take.
Council approved the change unanimously and without comment.
The price cut follows years of complaints by people fed up with paying the higher prices, said Versal Dearing, supervisor of drafting in the city Engineering Department.
Customers for the maps range from property owners who want to see what their pieces of land look like to real-estate agents, businesspeople and developers, Dearing said.
It's also part of an effort by city bureaucrats to be more service-oriented to their bosses - the taxpaying public, Dearing said.
The fees last were raised in 1990 as a result of a cost study performed by a city-hired consultant.
Prices for small 81/2-by-11-inch maps doubled from 50 cents to $1, while 11-by-17-inch and 26-by-36-inch maps increased eightfold, from $1 and $2 to $8 and $16, respectively.
The higher prices were supposed to reflect the cost to the city to make the copies, including labor, paper, equipment and other overhead. The thinking was, residents would view the increases as sound fiscal management.
Instead, the increases just made people angry.
"When we'd tell them [a large map] costs $16, that would blow their minds," Dearing said.
Either way, the amount of money involved is no big deal. The Engineering Department sells a few hundred maps of varying sizes each year. Last year, the total take was $2,815, according to the city engineer.
More remarkable is the direction of the prices. City Finance Director James Grisso said fee reductions are rare. After an hour of digging, he could come up with only two.
In 1992, admission prices at city-owned swimming pools was cut 50 percent.
In May, monthly rooftop passes for the Century Station parking garage were reduced by $2.50 per month, but the city more than made up for that by increasing the monthly rate for covered parking in the garage, Grisso said.
"I think most of the fee changes have been modest increases - not decreases," he said.
by CNB