Bigfork residents will be assessed $47.84 per residence for the first year as Flathead County imposes its special fee area for the new green-box site in Bigfork.

A public hearing is planned at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9, in the county commissioners chambers regarding the Bigfork assessment. While the county is taking both oral and written comments about the new tax district, there is no formal mechanism to protest the annual assessments, county Administrator Mike Pence said.

The first fee assessment will be included in the 2017 tax bill.

The county had planned to close both the Bigfork and Lakeside green-box sites — both unstaffed and unfenced and deemed unsafe by county officials — and consolidate them with the Creston and Somers sites. After citizens from both communities protested the consolidation, the commissioners agreed to build new and bigger collection sites, but said users would have to pay for them.

The annual assessments for Bigfork and Lakeside residents are in addition to the $80.73 each residence is charged for the landfill on annual tax bills.

It cost the county $888,800 to build Bigfork’s new green-box site on a 5-acre parcel north of Montana 35 and 83 and east of Crossroads Church. That includes land acquisition, engineering, construction and equipment, county Public Works Director Dave Prunty said.

The Bigfork site opened in September 2015, and the county wanted to get roughly a year’s worth of data before holding a public hearing on the fee district, Prunty said.

An enlarged Lakeside green-box site off Blacktail Road will be finished by late August and will be operated in the same manner with a special fee area. The county is leasing 2.75 acres from the Montana Department of Transportation for the bigger Lakeside site, which previously was located on less than an acre of land in the same location.

Lakeside residents will be assessed roughly $85 a year, about double what Bigfork residents will pay, Prunty said, because there are about half as many residential units in the area.

It is costing the county about $650,000 to develop the new and improved Lakeside site. A public hearing on the Lakeside special fee area will be held roughly a year from now, Prunty added. Lakeside assessments will begin in the 2018 tax year.

“We want to run it a year and make sure we’re charging properly,” he said.

Annual operational costs for the Bigfork site will be $136,830, which includes 1.5 employees to staff the facility.

If costs increase, the annual assessment will change, Prunty said. On the other hand, if more people move to Bigfork, the fees would be reduced because there would be more people to share the cost.

The assessments will be reviewed and adjusted every year to align with operational costs and will be charged in perpetuity as long as those collection sites exist.

The Bigfork fee area includes 3,324 residential units in an area that generally includes the Bigfork elementary school district and Swan River school district. It is bordered on the west by the Flathead River and to the south by Flathead Lake and the Flathead/Lake county border. The northern border is north of LaBrant Road and includes Dyer Road, Whispering Pines and Coyote Meadow Trail. The eastern border is east of Pine Ridge and Bear Creek roads.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.