Hearing set Wednesday over fees for Bigfork boxes

A public hearing for the Bigfork special district that will collect fees for the green-box collection site will be held at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday at the Flathead County commissioner chambers in the Courthouse.

The hearing had been scheduled in early August but was rescheduled after the commissioners decided to begin assessing the fee for the 2016 tax year instead of waiting until next year.

Bigfork residents will pay $47.84 per residence for the community’s new green-box site that opened last September north of Montana 35.

The county spent $888,800 to build the bigger fenced site at the insistence of the Bigfork community, which lobbied to retain a collection site. Annual operational costs for the Bigfork site will be an estimated $136,830, which includes 1.5 employees to staff the facility.

The county had planned to close both the Bigfork and Lakeside green-box sites and consolidate them with the Creston and Somers sites. After citizens from both communities protested the consolidation the commissioners agreed to build new and bigger collection sites, but said users would have to pay for them.

The annual assessments for Bigfork and Lakeside residents are in addition to the $80.73 each residence is charged for the landfill on annual tax bills.

The assessments will be reviewed and adjusted every year to align with operational costs.

Fee areas are set up for 20 years, but the annual assessment will be charged as long as those collection sites exist.

An enlarged Lakeside green-box site off Blacktail Road will be complete later this month and also will be operated with a special fee area. Starting in the 2017 tax year Lakeside residents will pay about $85 a year because there are fewer residential units in that area.