Move to increase license fees may face opposition at Brewer

Increased license fees may be a controversial issue at Tuesday night’s Brewer City Council meeting and even City Clerk Arthur Verow, who produced the figures to be discussed said he was “kind of surprised at how it came out.”

Verow referred to the large increases, some nearly three times the original fees and many more than double. Among the proposals will be one to delete an exemption from license requirements for charities, religious or fraternal organizations.

While Councilor Larry Doughty said he opposed heavy increases in fees, he said that he supported the deletion of the exemption. He said that the Police Department had sponsored a dance Saturday at the Brewer Auditorium to raise money for a policemen’s memorial. The dance was run much like a bottle club, Doughty said. “When there are so many drunk drivers out there, it’s not appropriate,” Doughty said. “That’s a mistake. They shouldn’t be gathering a bottle club for that and I hope they would not do it again.”

Also on the agenda will be the proposed interim $19-a-ton increase in tipping fees requested by PERC officials. Most of the council were not happy about the increase from $9.82 to $28.82. Doughty was the most vocal opponent of the increase and demanded that PERC and Department of Environmental Protection officials be sent “a message” by the council’s rejection of the increase.

Doughty said he would support one increase Tuesday. He suggested that surrounding towns that receive dispatching service from Brewer should pay more than the $1,000 in current contracts. He suggested a $500 increase and said that the new charge still would be a bargain.

Doughty said that some increases of business inspection fees might be needed but that he thought those proposed were too high. One fee, for restaurants seating fewer than 50 patrons, would rise from $25 to $83. Doughty said that an increase of perhaps $25 would have been plenty.

Verow said that he had been asked last year by the council to examine the fee structure and report the results. He had talked with city inspectors several times to determine how much work went into inspections and produced the new figures based on those interviews. He said he avoided using fee schedules of other towns because that would lead to arbitrary changes.

Verow said that the council could do anything with the suggestion and that options might include placing the burden for payment of fees more on the general obligation account or reducing the amount or number of inspections required.

On July 1 a system of automatically increasing the fees, based on cost of living adjustments, will come into effect, Verow said, and future adjustment such as is faced by the council will not be needed.