REEDLEY – With inflation and and operation costs rising hand-in-hand, the city will be introducing minor fee increases to help keep up.
On April 14, the Reedley City Council held a public hearing for a list of changes to the city’s master fee schedule. While the majority of increases are minimal and inflationary, those who use various facilities and services in the city can expect to shell out a few extra dollars.
Assistant City Manager Paul Melikian gave the council a condensed overview of some of the changes, stating that this is merely an annual review process to ensure that fees which haven’t been adjusted in a while match evolving costs.
“In some cases it’s been several years, and in some cases it was just this last year depending on the fee,” said Melikian.
A small, but interesting change is with regards to cash transactions. Following the discontinuation of pennies in November 2025, the city is anticipating an upcoming shortage and will be implementing a widely used rounding system to forego the need for pennies.
Cash transactions ending in 0.01 and 0.02 will be rounded down to .00 cents; 0.03, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.07 will be rounded up or down to 0.05 cents; and 0.08 and 0.09 will be rounded to 0.10 cents. Those concerned about “losing change” won’t have to worry, since the city already gives customers the ability to put the difference in change toward their next bill.
For those who pay with debit or credit cards, the rounding system will have no effect.
Park rentals will also be seeing an increase of 3% for cost recovery of equipment and time per reservation. Deposits for rentals, and equipment such as bases and line chalkers, are also proposed to be increased to cover damage and cleanup costs.
Staff have noticed consistent use of soccer fields from year-round travel teams, which has brought more of an impact to the fields than the traditional nine-week programs. As a result, it is also proposed that these groups pay a higher percentage of adopted fees, going up from 20% to 50%.
Mayor Matthew Tuttle asked if these teams have been made aware of these increases, to which Community Services Director Sarah Reid said they have been made aware, and understand the need for the increase.
“No one really had a big dispute,” said Reid. “I think they understand as well that the city is trying to do more to keep those fields looking nice, and that takes money.”
Reedley Municipal Airport will be seeing a few different increases that will somewhat help to keep it in the green. Hangar fees are the airport’s primary source of operating revenue, but according to the staff report they “have simply not kept pace with operating costs.”
In an effort to address this, airport storage fees are proposed to be increased to 10% for older hangars, and 5% for newer hangars. It is also recommended that transient parking be increased from $5 to $10.
The final major recommendation is to implement a $500 fee per day of usage from outside agencies like CAL FIRE, the U.S. Forest Services or any of their subcontractors. According to the staff report, this kind of fee is common practice for other airports, but Reedley’s does not currently have one.
Other fee increases referenced in the staff report include community development services, development impact fees, police fees and more, though many of these are inflationary and are adjusted based on the consumer price index.
Since this item was a public hearing, the council took no action. The amended master fee schedule is set to be brought back to council at the April 28 meeting, and is set to take effect on July 1.
