New Agency OKs $1 Vehicle Fees for Call Boxes

A new county agency was born Tuesday, and it immediately approved a $1 vehicle registration surcharge to finance a $3-million emergency telephone system on Orange County’s 135 miles of freeways.

The Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies, whose members are also county transportation commissioners, held its first meeting and voted unanimously to ask the Department of Motor Vehicles to collect the $1 fees, effective May 1.

The surcharge will be added onto existing registration levies when Orange County motorists are billed for their yearly vehicle license renewals.

Installation of the emergency call boxes is expected to begin by April, 1987. However, the DMV, the California Highway Patrol and Caltrans are still negotiating with the county over what share of the proceeds each will get from surcharge revenues.

Moreover, the service authority must still decide on the number of call boxes and what type of telephone equipment to install. About 500 to 800 call boxes are being considered.

The authority plans to hire consultants to answer such questions and agreed Monday to borrow money from the county Transportation Commission to pay for start-up costs.

Bonds to Be Issued

The authority will receive its first surcharge revenue from the DMV in July, officials said. The fees are expected to generate about $902,000 this year and $1.6 million annually thereafter.

The service authority plans to issue bonds before receiving all of the money needed to pay for a complete system so that it can be built at one time.

Meanwhile, during Tuesday’s inaugural meeting, James Roosevelt, Orange County Transportation Commission chairman, was elected chairman of the service authority. Transportation commissioners, who also serve on the authority, are Roosevelt, Orange Mayor James H. Beam, Brea Mayor Clarice A. Blamer, Tustin Councilman Richard B. Edgar, and Supervisors Harriett Wieder, Thomas F. Riley and Ralph B. Clark.

The Board of Supervisors and various cities have approved the call-box plan, which set in motion the authority to establish the new county agency.

Los Angeles is the only county in the state with a full-scale emergency phone system.