Lyon County fee increases to help bridge budget gaps

Fees in Lyon County will be going up.

The increases will be in the animal services, planning, building and road departments. The current fees will be increased 20 percent over what they were in 1989. The only department that was not looked at for fee increases was Lyon County Utilities.

Comptroller Josh Foli said sales taxes from the state's consolidated taxes are still not coming in as anticipated. He said another reason is many fees haven't seen recent increases, though staff costs have gone up.

"We do a fee schedule every year. Certain fees were revised last year, but not many," he said. "Building department fees haven't been increased in a long time."

They haven't increased since 1989, according to Building Director Nick Malarchak.

He said it has been at least 41Ú2 years since a small adjustment was made on how the county valued the cost of a house, in January 2003.

"There are two ingredients to the cost of a building permit," he said. "The fee schedule, and how much the work is worth, and of course the value of construction has gone up.

Foli said the planning and building departments took the bulk of the increases, with minimal increases in other fees.

"We also established a fee schedule for GIS services," he added.

Malarchak said the county fees were no higher and in some cases less than surrounding counties.

He also said they were going to start doing something other counties have done for a long time - requiring deposits of the plan review portion of the permit fee when the application is filed.

"We've had a number of applications we've done reviews on and the applicant changes their minds," he said.

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.

All departments

Item Current fee Proposed fee

• Computer printouts

81Ú2-by-11 25 cents 50 cents

81Ú2-by-14 50 cents 75 cents

• Map/Prints

18-by-24 $2 $2.50

24-by-36 $3 $3.50

30-by-42 $4 $4.50

36-by-48 $5 $5.50

Cut to size $6 $6.50

Mylar $5 $5.50

Animal Services

• Surrender Fees

Adult dog $25 $50

Per pup, over 6 in a litter $5 $10

Animals caught by county with live traps, per dog $50 $75

• Cremation fees

Domestic cat or small animal $65

Small dog $75

Medium dog $85

Large dog $100

Extra Large Dog $150

Goat or sheep $150

Calf under 300 pounds $200