Bellaire City Council approved an ordinance to authorize the fire department to charge and collect fees for certain emergency response services at their Monday night meeting.
The fire department wants to charge fees for emergency services because they provide services to vehicles traveling through Bellaire, but most vehicles are not owned by Bellaire residents. The fire department provides fire suppression, emergency rescue and hazardous material cleanup, controlling inside and outside of city limits.
“It is in the best interest of the residents and property owners of the city that the Bellaire Fire Department recoup some of the costs incurred with providing emergency responses both inside and outside city limits of the city of Bellaire,” the approved ordinance said.
Since residents already pay property taxes, some of which goes to emergency response services, they would not have to pay for response service fees, as well as West University Place and Southside Place, Fire Chief Darryl Anderson said.
Bellaire has an automatic aid agreement with West U and Southside Place. They do not have an automatic aid agreement with Houston and don’t anticipate entering into an automatic aid agreement anytime soon.
Anderson said he anticipates about $80,000 in revenue for charging for emergency services.
Any person, other than Bellaire residents, West U and Southside Place residents, will have to pay for any emergency response services the fire department provides. The fire department will send a bill to the person who requires their services and they will have seven days to pay for the services, the ordinance said. Anyone who doesn’t pay the bill will be found guilty and will have to pay a fine.
“Just because council approves this tonight doesn’t mean we’re going to go out and start charging fees,” City Manager Bernie Satterwhite said.
An itemized cost of fees will be brought to council for approval.
