The county board approved adding some fees, making some small raises in fees, decreased some fees, and did away with some fees altogether at the county board’s November 12 public hearing to discuss changes to the county’s fee schedule.
Cook County Community Center facilities
Individuals and groups that are not nonprofit will now pay $15 per hour to rent the 4H building, an increase of $5 per hour.
Rental of the arena increased from $20 to $30 per hour for individuals or businesses not covered by a nonprofit umbrella.
Entrepreneurs renting the kitchen will now pay $10 for the space and use of facilities.
Vacation rental license fee
Earlier in the year, the county board held several discussions about implementing a vacation rental license fee but never took any action on creating a fee.
Auditor/Treasurer Braidy Powers brought forth a request from Planning and Zoning to add the vacation rental license fee of $200 to the county’s fee schedule, and it was approved with all of the other requested changes at the end of the public meeting.
Civil process service fees were increased from $45 to $75. Sheriff Pat Eliasen said the cost hadn’t been raised in many years, and after reviewing what other counties were charging to send a deputy to hand out a summons for court, Cook County wasn’t charging enough for the service.
Eliasen told commissioners, “What we are putting out and getting in, we are putting out more than we are putting in; $75 would cover our cost. We would pretty much be breaking even. It’s not a moneymaker.”
Some changes were made in the MIS Data processing department, with items that the public can now access online coming off the list of services provided. Public Health and Human Services deleted fees for the following: Adoption home study, adult foster care licensing, custody study, the employer requested CD education program, hepatitis B vaccination, homemaker, and manteaux testing.
Other changes to fees on Health and Human Services included increasing childcare licensing-background study from $25 to $40, decreasing the cost from $200 to $100 for childcare renewal, and decreasing the fee for the initial childcare license from $150 to $50.
Leave a Reply