New Richmond has recently passed legislation to send out bills after the village police or fire departments respond to traffic accidents.

The new policy, which was introduced by Police Chief David Willoughby several months ago and passed by council in mid-November, will enable the village to recover some of the costs associated with the time spent investigating traffic accidents (cars or trucks), the chief said.

“The new policy only applies to traffic crashes,” Willoughby said. “It also only applies to crashes where we can identify the responsible party. We think it makes economic sense and is fiscally responsible to start billing the responsible party’s insurance companies for our efforts spent in investigating traffic accidents within the village limits.”

The new legislation requires that a bill will only be sent to those people who do not live in the village; the chief said that he and council feel that village residents already pay taxes for those services.