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WILKES-BARRE &#8212; An amended ordinance designed to generate revenues by billing insurance companies for fire department calls moved closer to passage Thursday night.City council approved the first of two readings of the law created to recover the costs of equipment and resources used to respond to structure fires, vehicle crashes and hazardous material spills and emergencies.Taxpayers will not be billed nor will people without insurance, explained Alan Klapat, deputy fire chief.&#8220;The insurance companies are paying these fees,&#8221; he said.At no cost to the city, PA Fire Recovery Service of Allentown, will collect fees from insurance companies. The third-party collection agency will make money by taking between 15 percent and 20 percent of the fees depending upon the number of attempts made to contact the insurers, Klapat said.The intent of the &#8220;Fire and Rescue Services&#8221; section added to the existing ordinance, is &#8220;to grant the City of Wilkes-Barre the authority to seek recovery of all reasonable costs of responding&#8221; to emergencies &#8220;as allowed by applicable law.&#8221; Fees ranged from $2 for a pair of latex gloves to $400 an hour for an aerial or ladder truck, according to the amendment.Mayor Tony George has expressed concerns about revenue projections in the $51.5 million balanced budget he was handed upon taking office in January and attempted to increase property taxes to cover an estimated $2 million shortfall. Council rejected the tax hike, prompting George to look elsewhere to raise revenues.Bob Kadluboski objected to the fees and asked what would prevent the collection agency from raising them.&#8220;So naturally this company is going to charge more so they can collect more,&#8221; he protested.But Klapat said the fee schedule is set and written into the ordinance. The collection company must follow the schedule, he stressed.&#8220;They&#8217;re only allowed to bill for what we actually use. When the firefighter writes the report, if we use certain equipment or tools that&#8217;s what&#8217;s going to be in the report,&#8221; Klapat said. &#8220;They cannot add anything that&#8217;s not already in the report and our firefighters are at no time going to inflate the services or equipment that we use.&#8221;At Tuesday night&#8217;s work session, Klapat said the collection has been very successful in recovering fees. Kingston uses the service and on a three-year average collected approximately $28,000, he said. Likewise, Chester, which is comparable in size to Wilkes-Barre brought in $60,000 in the same time frame, Klapat added.&#8220;Scranton brought in this company in 2015. And in 2015 they collected $64,000 for the city of Scranton,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So they do have a proven track record that they&#8217;re collecting from insurance companies and bringing money into the municipalities.&#8221;The city could start raising additional revenues as a result of the changed drug paraphernalia ordinance council approved Thursday. The ordinance gives police the authority to reduce possession of drug paraphernalia to a summary citation from a misdemeanor offense. The citation is payable by a $300 fine that the city collects. If the charge stays a misdemeanor, it goes to Luzerne County Court, using up time and resources of the police department and splitting the fine between the state, county and city.The revenue projection budgeted for the sale of city property should be on target. The city expects to receive $500,000 from Sphere International LLC, a development consortium that has proposed building a $28 million hotel and conference center on the corner of West Northampton and South Main streets. Council approved a resolution authorizing city officials to go through with the sale of city land eyed for the development.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Jerry Lynottjlynott@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott</shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre on track to team up with collection company to recover insurance costs for emergency service responses