The City of Cheviot is a great place to live. Many argue that the best thing about living in Cheviot is the first-rate services. While we hope most will rarely need the services of the Cheviot Police, Fire or Paramedics, it is reassuring to know there are highly trained professionals protecting our residents. We all rely on snow removal, street repairs, and garbage pick-up. Most of us use the City's recycling centers, parks including the athletic fields, leaf pick-up, and yard waste pick-up. These are just some things that the City provides.

The City has worked hard to provide services to its residents and has been quite innovative in finding ways to improve the community. Cheviot began a program in 2008 where we purchase foreclosed homes from the Federal Government for $1 and then use our employees and other local resources to rehab and then resell these homes. By funding the program with privates sources, the neighborhood has been improved without expense to the City or it's citizens. This is just one of the many progressive ways we have tried to improve the City without the use of public funds.

Cheviot operates on income from three sources. The first is from income tax. The second is from the State of Ohio Local Government Fund which includes estate taxes. The third is from your property tax of which only 17% goes to the City. The State of Ohio has reduced the amount of funding allotted to small cities like Cheviot in addition to cutting the amount of estate tax that a local community can receive. An example would be the reduction of over $635,000 in estate taxes over the past 5 years. While our sources of income have remained stagnant and have even been drastically reduced, our costs for gasoline, electricity, water, supplies, and health insurance have continued to skyrocket just like yours have. Additionally, our costs for road salt for this Winter season have nearly tripled from last year.

It is important to understand that the services Cheviot provide come at a cost; however, we have done a lot in the last several years to keep those costs down. The term "fiscally responsible" has been used to explain the constant reevaluation of expenses, and the continuing trend of budget cuts. The Administration and Council have worked hard to operate within a dwindling source of funds. Large equipment purchases have been put on hold, crosswalks were not repainted this year, through attrition employees have not been replaced, overtime has been cut, department budgets have been slashed, and non-essential expenses have been eliminated.

There are no cuts left to be made, which is why the City is planning to implement a Public Works Fee. We believe that residents want to maintain all City services, but to continue operations this fee will be necessary. The City has considered the costs to you as residents, and has worked to keep the cost well below what would be charged by the private sector.

The fee is scheduled to take effect in December of this year and continue until December 2009. This fee is temporary, but necessary to allow the City to continue operations throughout next year. The City plans to review the budget and reconsider all the options for funding City services. The proposed Public Works Fee would be $10 per month per single family house. Please refer to the schedule below or stop by Cheviot City Hall for a full fee schedule for businesses, multi-families, and/or other special situations.

Fee schedule for Public Works Fee for Business District
Business A.	Up to 4 Cans only one time a week $10.00 per month
Business B	Up to 4 Cans only twice a week $17.00 per month
Business C	3-4 yd dumpster once a week $40.00 per month Additional weekly pickup would be $25/month per dumpster
Business D	6 yd dumpster once a week $60.00 per month Additional weekly pickup would be $35/month per dumpster
Business E	8 yd dumpster once a week $75.00 per month Additional weekly pickup would be $50/month per dumpster
Business F	If contracted and proven through written documentation of private garbage collection, the fee will be $0

The City Council and Administration value the input of our residents and therefore have scheduled 3 public hearings to answer any questions concerning the proposed Public Works Fee. The public hearing dates are as follows:

Tuesday, October 14th – 6:30 pm – City Hall 2nd Floor
Tuesday, October 21st – 6:30 pm – City Hall 2nd Floor
Tuesday, October 28th – 6:30 pm – Cheviot Memorial Fieldhouse Lower Level

If you are unable to attend, you can contact the City at: Publicworksfee@cheviot.org.

Minutes of the public hearings will be posted with the council minutes under the Government Info section of the website.