After more

than a year of study, discussion, negotiation and paperwork, impact fees

to help pay for fire services in Fayette County are now a reality.

Developers

Monday began paying the fees for each new home, business or industry.

County commissioners,

in a special called meeting Friday, approved the final paperwork, paving

the way for charging the fees to help defray the cost of new county fire

services made necessary by growth.

Developers

will pay $600.57 for each new home they build. Builders of new businesses

and industries will pay on a sliding scale based upon their size and type.

Fayette's Department

of Fire and Emergency Services already has begun construction of four

new fire stations, and the cost of those projects will be supplemented

portion of the cost that can be attributed to future growth.

Officials are

hoping to collect about $16.7 million over the 20-year life of the impact

fees to help repay the debt on the fire stations and for future equipment

needs.

The county

also had considered charging impact fees to help pay for a new county

jail, but an agreement between the county and its cities to govern those

fees bogged down in a dispute over the county's plan to levy additional

per diem charges to keep municipal prisoners in the jail.

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