YORK, Pa.-- The York County commissioners voted unanimously to allow a five dollar fee to be added to vehicle registration. All of the money will go toward fixing county owned bridges.
The registration fee will now be $41 once the fee is added on.
The county owns 94, about 20 of them are in need of repair.
"They're safe, but at some point we're going to need to something to them," York County Bridge Engineer Steve Malesker said.
One man spoke out against the fee during the public comment at the meeting.
George Smeltzer from East York agrees on using the money for safer bridges. He just doesn't want to have to pay additional money out of his pocket, when he's on a fixed income.
"It really imposes a hardship," he said.
This fee will bring in about $1.8-$2.2 million a year to repair bridges. Malesker said it costs about $1.3-$1.8 million to replace a bridge. He said the planning commission's funding went flat so their current plan would not have the proper funds by 2020.
"The $5 registration fee will allow us to work on the structurally deficient and bridges that are in poor condition," Malesker said.
The county commissioners said the motivation for the fee was safety. President Commissioner Susan Byrnes said with the amount people who use bridges, they need to keep them safe.
"Safety for our school children, safety for our emergency vehicles," she said.
The fee will go into effect in October. Commissioner Byrnes said a resident can save money if they pay for the two year registration option. If they do this, they will only have to pay the $5 fee once every two years instead of every year.