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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1985-12-11, Page 1VOL. 1 NO. 8 WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 11, 1985. Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. 40 CENTS New Brussels Reeve Hank Ten-Pas signed his oath of office last week at the inaugural meeting of Brussels council. Also taking part in the ceremony were [left to right] Malcolm Jacobson, councillor; Henry Exel, public utilities commissioner; Betty Graber, councillor; Gordon Workman, councillor; Harold Bridge, public utilities commissioner and Dave Boynton, councillor. -- photo by Pat Langlois. Brussels council works overtime first time out Vacant lot holders get stung by Blyth reassessment While most Blyth property owners will see little change or even a decrease in the assessment of their properties under updated assessment figures adopted by Blyth Council Thursday night, a few are in for an unpleasant surprise. Those most adversely effected, explained John Garrett, Regional Assessment Commissioner from the Huron-Perth Re • ional Assess- Festival shows record year Blyth Centre for the Arts which operates the Blyth Festival showed a surplus for the seventh consecu- tive season but more than ever this year it was the result of tight management practices. The annual report presented to the annual meeting held in Bay- field on December 4 showed a record surplus of $31,000 in a season that started off slow at the box office. General Manager Brenda Doner and Artistic Director Katherine Kaszas decided, in the light of early disappointing attendance, to cut expenditures by cancelling work- shopping of some new plays and hiring fewer staff. At the end of the repertory part of the season (the alternating first four plays) attend- ance was running about four per cent below the estimates for the year. The opening of Garrison's Gar- age, however, proved a dramatic turnaround, doing much better than expected. The show then went on tour throughout Ontario and New Brunswick and further profits resulted. In the end the gloomy season turned around into a very bright one. The surplus, according to Ms. Doner, will allow the Festival to create a special Production Stabili- zation Fund, akind of insurance policy against a lean year. The fund will allow Ms. Kaszas to proceed with plans for workshops or hiring needed actors for larger produc- tions even if there is a dip in attendance as there was early in this season. The Festival must also put emphasis on improving facilities Ms. Doner said. The Festival has grown so much, particularly with touring which increased this year's season more than half again in length that the Festival will be looking for office space as well as rehearsal space and space for shops. Improvements to Memorial Hall in terms of maintenance are needed as well, she said. In her report, outgoing president Sheila Richards of Brussels point- ed out that 35,000 people had attended the Festival this summer and with winter programming, 40,000 people had gone through the doors of the theatre. She reported that 22 homes in the area had taken part in the bed Continued on Pg. 3 ment Office in Goderich, are those with vacant building lots. With the 1980 adjustment, properties were valued at the 1975 market value and vacant lots in Blyth were selling for about $1350 and assess- ments reflected that. Since then property values escalated until in 1980, some lots were selling for $9-10,000 before dropping again in 1982-83. The lowest figure reached If the next three year term is anything like the first session of Brussels Village Council, Brussels taxpayers will certainly get their money's worth. The inaugural meeting of council on a stormy night, Dec. 2 lasted until 3 a.m. Pastor Doug Zehr of the Brussels Mennonite Fellowship was present for the inaugural ceremony and in his address reminded the councill- ors to think of all residents when they made their decisions, not just the vocal ones. Reeve Hank Ten-Pas had his Because the Christmas and New Year holidays fall on the dates The Citizen normally arrives in your mail box, the publication dates and advertising and news deadlines have had to be adjusted. The issue for next week, Dec. 18 will remain the same as usual with advertising and news copy dead- line being Monday at 4 p.m. in Blyth and 2 p.m. in Brussels (although it's suggested you get it here as early as possible). The issue that would normally appear December 25 will be mailed on Dec. 23 and will contain Christmas greetings from local is the figure used in evaluating the lots, about $7500 per lot. The study included only numb- ers to protect the anonymity of the property owners and prevent conflicts of interest on the part of the politicians. It showed 385 residential units with 75 per cent having a change of less than 20 per cent either up or down, six per cent showed a decrease of more than 20 whole tamily in attendance so that they could see what was going to take up so much of his time in the next three years. In his remarks, Reeve Ten-Pas welcomed back councillors Gordon Workman and Betty Graber from the last council, Malcolm Jacobs who had served with the reeve in an earlier term and Dave Boynton the newest member of council. "When I was first elected to council in 1963 I certainly had no idea 1 would be sitting on council for 18 years, let alone occupying the Reeve's chair in 1985," Reeve Ten-Pas said. business and special Christmas stories. This will be printed on Saturday, Dec. 21 so deadline for news and advertising will be Friday, Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. in Brussels and 4 p.m. in Blyth. Anyone wishing to place a Christmas greeting in the issue should contact The Citizen at once to reserve space. The New Year issue will also be printing on Saturday, Dec. 28. Deadlines for news and advertis- ing will be Friday, Dec. 27 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. in Blyth. Special New Year greetings will be included and advertisers should act quickly to make sure they are included. per cent and just 19 per cent showed an increase of more than 20 per cent. It was this latter group that council was most worried about. particularly one piece of property which would have a tax increase of $277 (based on the new assessment at the current mill rate). Mr. Garrett explained that this was a fairly large section of Council appointed committees for the coming term. Councillors Workman and Jacobs will form the road committee with councillors Jacobs and Boynton on the proper- ty committee. Councillors Work- man and Graber will serve on the recreation committee and councill- ors Boynton and Workman will serve on the fire board. A new committee to serve as liason between council and its officers and employees was set up. The management committee will be chaired by Councillor Graber with Councillor Boynton as the other member. The Reeve is a member of all committees. Much of the meeting was taken up in filling in the new councillors on what has been taking place in various matters in the past term. Councillor concurred with a resolution from the Village Omemee calling for the Ministry of Health to provide funding for volunteer fire departments which diversify to provide first aid and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and auto extrication and traffic control services. Council also supported a resolu- tion from the Huron-Perth County Roman Catholic Separate School Board involving insurance. The resolution calls for the Attorney General of Ontario to "alter or remove existing legislation which Continued on Pg. 2 residential land that in 1975 was valued at only $3500. The property owner in question, he said, was only getting such a large increase because he had paid so little before. Councillor Tom Cronin worried about the increases to some residential and farm properties. (Farm properties were also up substantially due to increased land prices, now adjusted to $800 per acre.) Mr. Garrett said that there would be an appeal period during which people can appeal their new assessments to an independent judge and also an open house in Blyth where people can come and get information and argue their case with assessment office offi- cials. Councillor William Manning said that many people don't understand their assessment no- tice and feel "what's the use of fighting city hall?" Councillor Cronin asked if there was any way for the old and new assessment to be shown on the assessment notice so people can see the difference but Mr. Garret explained the form is not set up to handle that information. Clerk-Treasurer Larry Walsh said that tax notices will likely be out while the appeal period is still in effect and people should be able to tell if there has been a major change by the amount of their taxes. The assessment notices will be mailed January 8 or earlier with the final day of appeal as March 4. The first installment of taxes is due March 15 so tax notices should be out early enough to give people time to react. In addition, there will be two days of open house in Blyth and perhaps an additional Satur- day session for ratepayers of Blyth and Morris, both of which munici- palities are undergoing the assess- ment update. Councillor Manning asked Mr. Garrett why council should go to the updated assessment instead of sticking with the 1975 base in use at present. "If you don't go with this report you'll just increase the inequities," Mr. Garrett replied. He said the properties that have increased in value will likely keep increasing and those that decrease may continue to decrease, mean- ing some people are paying more than they should while others are paying less. Reeve Albert Wasson reiterated this part of the changes to his councillors again after Mr. Garrett left the meeting. "We're all sitting here feeling sorry for the people who are going to have it (their assessment) higher, we should think about the people who are paying too much." He said that councillors should not have to apologize to those whose tax bills will increase because these people had been paying less than they should over the last few years. In the end council voted to accept the updated assessment for use in 1986 but to put a notice in the paper asking people to check their new assessment when notices arrive in January so they can appeal if they're not happy with the assess- ment. In other business, council voted to pass a resolution to authorize the Huron County Planning Depart- ment to apply for a Community Planning Study Grant to review the Blyth Secondary plan including a general review of policies and the addition of Community Improve- ment policies and the addition of Community Improvement Policies and site plan control policies. Councillor Cronin said that this was just updating information not implementing the plan. Reeve Wasson said that was so and he was "perfectly pleased with the posi- tion we're in right now" but realized the village was likely going to move toward full imple- mentation of zoning. Holidays bring early deadlines