County finally has stormwater ordinance

The fees have shown up on tax bills sent to owners of all properties in the unincorporated areas of the county and have brought into the Stormwater Enterprise Fund a total of $1.25 million. As of March 21, the fund still had about $625,000 in it, according to CFO Rose Kisaalita.

According to spreadsheets, the county over the past three fiscal years has spent $642,193. Sixty percent of that was spent on salaries and benefits, some of it for Roads & Bridges employees who for a period of time were assigned to the Stormwater Department.

Only $186,584 – or 14.8 percent – of the money collected has been spent on actual repair and maintenance of storm water facilities, such as maintenance of detention ponds, ditches and other infrastructure.

For the full story see the March 23 issue of the Barrow Journal.