Gunnison council approves fee changes, including fire and water monitoring charges
Alongside a budget with no property tax increase, Gunnison's council approved fee schedule amendments on June 17, 2026. The minutes describe a local fire services fee going from $2 to $4 a month and a new state-mandated culinary water monitoring charge of two cents per 1,000 gallons.
Continuing story: Auditing Gunnison
Gunnison's council approved a set of fee schedule amendments on June 17, 2026, the same night it adopted a 2026-27 budget that City Manager Dennis L. Marker's budget message says "does not include a property tax increase." [1][2]
Fire services fee
The minutes list a "Change to the local fire services fee. Currently $2 a month and a proposal to $4 a month." [1]
The budget message says, "A new dispatch expense line is shown in the fire department with $20,000 of potential expense," and "A $2 monthly fire fee increase is proposed to cover that cost." [2]
Culinary water monitoring charge
The minutes describe "another mandate from the state for a culinary water monitoring system" and say: "The fee will be .02 per 1000 gallons." [1]
"The fee is due July 2027, the month after the new budget, but by introducing the fee in this budget the city can collect it and then pay it rather than pay it and then collect it," according to the minutes. [1]
Other changes and the vote
The minutes also list changes for home-occupation business licenses, land use application fees, and a "White Sanitation increase due to fuel cost and clarification of the waste management fee." They give no dollar amount for the sanitation change. [1]
Councilor Pickett moved to approve Resolution 2026-08 "with an amendment by councilor Nielson" to include changes to the language on legal fees, and Councilor Childs seconded. The roll call was 4-0, with Nielson, Childs, Pickett and Peterson voting yes. [1]
The June 17 packet does contain the resolution. PDF page 71 is a draft of Resolution 2026-08 with the mayor, recorder and council vote lines blank. PDF pages 72 to 78 hold the fee schedule exhibit, marked up in redline. On page 76, the local fire services line changes from $2 to $4, and the single $17.75 garbage line is replaced by a $3.60 county landfill fee and a $15.65 city collection fee, with the $2.50 additional cart unchanged. A new line says culinary system users other than industrial users pay $0.02 per 1,000 gallons on top of their rates, to comply with the state water system monitoring fee mandate. [2]
The redline is the proposed exhibit, not an executed schedule. The June 17 motion added a legal-fee language amendment, so the draft cannot settle the final wording, and the form's line that residential water rates take effect Sept. 1, 2026 does not set an effective date for every fee. The Ledger has not seen a signed schedule, bills or collections. [2][1]
Draft minutes of the July 15, 2026 meeting record unanimous approval of the June 17 minutes. [3]
Fee amounts here are as described in the council minutes. Correction, Oct. 24: an earlier version of this story said Resolution 2026-08 was not in the June 17 packet. It is, as a draft form at PDF page 71 followed by a redlined fee exhibit on PDF pages 72-78. The draft's signature and vote lines are blank.
Sources
- Gunnison City Council · June 17, 2026 minutes, resolutions 2026-07 and 2026-08 (July 15, 2026 packet)
- Gunnison City · June 12, 2026 budget message, June 17 council packet
- Gunnison City Council · Draft July 15, 2026 minutes (Aug. 5, 2026 packet)
Reporting by The Utah Ledger from the public records above. AI-assisted, checked against those records.