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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-03-16, Page 1INSIDE THIS WEEK: SPORTS - Pg. 8 Central Huron student curlers heading to OFSAA FIRE - Pg. 16 Blyth loses long-time fire chief Paul Josling FEST1ivAL - Pg. 19 Big season raises housing demands for Festival Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON NOG 1H0 4Citiz Volume 33 No. 11 n ESTABLISHED 1877 $1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, March 16, 2017 Blyth BIA hopes to ,p,, raise levy 0, _r r...., l/llihlllrrl/IRlilf� 1 ` t, T l 4. e • table.„. 41 -47 \ School's out forever After a special open house on the weekend the former Blyth Public School started coming down on Monday. Beginning at the east end of the school, classrooms were felled by Gagnon Demolition Inc. to make room for the new Grant and Mildred Sparling Centre housing the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity. Marc Gagnon, president of the demolition company, said materials from the job, including plywood and lengths of 2x8s taken from the school will be available for purchase from the site. For more information call 519- 796-6852. (Denny Scott photo) New equipment cut from Huron East budget By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen As a result of further cuts to the public works department, Huron East's budget is currently sitting with a proposed increase to the tax levy of five per cent. With minimal changes made between the first and second drafts of the budget, however, some councillors were looking to cut more in an effort to bring down the tax levy. At Huron East Council's March 7 meeting, Treasurer Paula Michiels presented the second draft of the budget, which was criticized by some councillors as having changed too little from the first draft, which had been presented two weeks earlier. Councillor Ray Chartrand said that the only change in the budget he could find was a small accounting adjustment regarding a new sound system at the Vanastra Recreation Centre, which will now be funded through fundraising efforts, rather than from the centre's levy in the 2017 budget. The second draft of the budget, however, was balanced, whereas the first draft was still short $700,000 that needed to be addressed. In order to cover that shortfall, Michiels proposed a one-time draw on the municipality's bridge reserve of $600,000 to help with the reconstruction of Winnipeg Street, Toronto Boulevard and Regina Road. In addition, the general levy had been increased slightly to accommodate a one-time levy to help support the International Plowing Match to the tune of $108,000. The second draft of the budget was presented to council with a proposed increase to the overall levy of 6.09 per cent. Several councillors, however, still felt the levy was too high and, in a year when upper -tier government funding has been more bountiful than in others, cost savings should be passed down to ratepayers. Chartrand and Councillors Bob Fisher and Brenda Dalton all wanted to see the proposed tax levy reduced to a five per cent increase, meaning that a further $135,000 would have to be trimmed from an already lean budget. Fisher recalled the 2016 budget when an increase to the tax levy of nearly 10 per cent was handed down to ratepayers. He said that if council had an opportunity to ease the burden on residents this year, they should take it. Several councillors spoke against making any changes, for various reasons. Councillor Kevin Wilbee said he considered the budget to already be very lean, while Councillor David Blaney said he couldn't support council striving for an "artificial" figure of five per cent when the municipality needed more money this year. He flipped the scenario around, saying that if there was a year in which the municipality didn't have as many needs, but had committed to, for example, increasing the levy by 10 per cent every year, council wouldn't search for ways to find items to insert into the budget. The principle, he said, should be the same the other way around. If municipal staff presented a lean budget and made a compelling case for every expense, council shouldn't make an effort to cut items the municipality needs, simply to get to a specific number. Calls to further reduce the budget, however, began to drown out those who were content with it and focus shifted to the public works department and the expenditure for a new backhoe to replace an 11 -year- old machine in the fleet that Director Barry Mills said had reached the end of its usefulness. While 11 years might not sound like a long time, Mills said the backhoe is used for a variety of jobs throughout the entire year in Huron East and the hours logged on the machine is the concerning figure, rather than its age. He detailed a number of repairs that would have to be made to the machine before it could even function again. Even then, he said, there is no guarantee the backhoe would continue to function for the Continued on page 10 By Denny Scott The Citizen A letter from the Blyth Business Improvement Area (BIA) requesting potentially significant increases to member levies raised some eyebrows at North Huron Council's March 6 meeting. The letter, from BIA President Rick Elliott, was discussed by council, however North Huron's Director of Finance Donna White said the letter had many factual mistakes in it. "The BIA doesn't understand how the levy works," she said. "The levy is the same process as [council's budget process] in that you have to come up with the dollars you need, based on priorities and projects. Once you have your dollar figure, then you figure out your assessment based on that." She also said the tax rates used in the letter were wrong and the issue needs to be handled by the BIA at the organization's annual general meeting before the issue can return to council. "If the membership agrees... a motion recommending those changes be implemented by bylaw would be presented by council," she said. Elliott, in the letter, suggested the issue first be approved by North Huron first, then the BIA's general membership at its annual general meeting (AGM), rather than the other way around. Councillor Bill Knott, North Huron Council's representative on the BIA, said he didn't believe the issue was presented at the BIA's AGM. White also said that Elliott's assertion that a previous increase had been denied by staff was "totally incorrect." "At no time has their request for an increase been denied," she said. White said an increase would be requested by having a budget that justified it and that budget would need to be passed at the BIA's annual general meeting. The letter also referred to properties that are not "properly zoned", however White said that all properties are zoned in accordance with the township's bylaw. "The BIA did compile a list of residential properties... running some sort of business," she said. "They did forward that to [the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC)]." White said MPAC would then decide if part of the residential property would be changed to commercial and that the township would have Continued on page 9