For more than a decade, Fort Dodge residents have paid the same monthly fee of $14.50 to get their trash and recycling materials picked up.

That status could be nearing an end.

In introducing the proposed sanitation budget for 2022-2023 Monday night, City Manager David Fierke said he will ask the City Council to discuss a potential rate increase in the spring.

When it was enacted, the $14.50 fee was intended to generate the money for a new kind of solid waste collection trucks that use mechanical arms and to put the sanitation collection system on a firm footing.

“We’ve done well,” Fierke said.

However, he said revenues have remained relatively flat and a $148,000 deficit is projected.

Collection of trash and recycling materials is paid for by the monthly fee. No property tax money is used.

The proposed sanitation budget for 2022-2023 is $1,636,993.

The budget includes $235,000 for a new truck.

Fierke and the council discussed the sanitation budget as they continued working on the spending plan for the next fiscal year. That fiscal year begins July 1, 2022, but state law requires cities to have their budgets done in mid-March.

Other proposed budgets introduced Monday include:

• $3,039,680 for storm sewer maintenance and construction, paid for with the storm water utility fee.

• $736,523 for city planning.

• $277,350 for inspections.

• $100,400 for rental housing inspection.

• $84,949 for the Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District, a roughly 32-block downtown area where property owners pay an extra tax to support projects there.

• $34,000 for running the Public Works Department Central Garage on Eighth Avenue South.