A request from the Fort Frances Curling Club for the town to give the non-profit group a 100 percent tax rebate was referred to the Administration and Finance executive committee for a recommendation at Monday night’s council meeting.
And now with a plea for a significant break in front of them, the executive committee will have some tough decisions to make.
“Like all our requests, the committee will review it to the best of our abilities, and then make appropriate recommendation back to council,” said Coun. Tannis Drysdale, who sits on the Administration and Finance executive committee with Couns. Roy Avis and Todd Hamilton.
“Like many of the decisions we have make, it won’t be easy,” she added. “We have to look at what’s fair for the community and for other non-profit groups.
“I think we’re going to have to do some research on it as to whether there’s been any precedence of this being done for any other groups,” said Coun. Hamilton, adding the Administration and Finance executive committee likely will contact curling club president Bill Gushulak to further discuss the matter.
But he did note that when he received the council agenda with the curling club’s request, he immediately thought of a myriad of other non-profit organizations in town that have buildings they have to pay taxes for annually, and wondered what would happen if they, too, asked for similar tax relief?
“It’s going to be a tough decision,” he remarked.
“That request is of a significant financial nature,” said Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig. “It’s not a request for an in-kind service.
“We have to look at various factors, particularly the town’s financial situation,” he added. “We’re not in a great position to be doing things like that.
“But at the same time, the curling club is a vital component to the town. I surely understand they’re in a tough position.”
The Administration and Finance executive committee meets at noon every Tuesday preceding a regularly-scheduled council meeting.
Under the Municipal Act, 2001, the town is able to authorize rebates up to 100 percent to qualifying local charitable organizations. But in December, 2001, administration contacted other municipalities as to what they were doing and settled on offering rebates up to 40 percent.
Gushulak said Tuesday the curling club had just paid its tax bill, which amounted to about $28,000, adding the organization had to take out a $10,000 loan to help cover it.
“We have, in the past, received a bit of a break on our taxes, but it’s never enough,” he noted. “The way we’re looking at it, we’d like to get this rebate, and be able to have some money to fix the place up without having this financial burden constantly over our heads.
“It’s one of the best-looking clubs in the region, and we’d like to see it stay that way,” said Gushulak.
In a letter he submitted to council that appeared on the agenda at Monday night’s meeting, Gushulak made it clear the curling club is in rough financial shape.
It still owes well over $100,000 on the building’s mortgage and yet the curling dues here already are the highest in the district.
“Our reserve funds are all depleted, and our building is showing its age and badly needs improvements,” he wrote.
Gushulak noted while the entire recreation budget for the town, including the arena and pool complex, is subsidized, another non-profit recreational facility—the curling club—pays its own heat, hydro, sewer and water, garbage pickup, maintenance, and taxes.
“In other words, we subsidize the rest of the community recreation budget,” he remarked.
Gushulak said yesterday the last thing the club wants to do is fold—and leave the town with a vacant building. He also stressed the organization has been trying to cut costs by doing things like completely shutting down for the summer.
“We’ll do everything in our power to keep afloat. This [the 100 percent rebate] could help us do that,” he said. “We just need a little buffer.”
Gushulak added the curling club is a cornerstone of the town’s recreational scene. It currently boasts around 550 regular members while at the same time catering to numerous part-time curlers annually.
In addition to the regular men’s and women’s leagues, the local club also is used by seniors, high school and elementary school students, and Special Olympians.
Since they have no club of their own, curlers from International Falls also run a league here, not to mention the numerous bonspiels throughout the winter that draw people from out of town.
The Fort Frances Curling Cub also has offered use of its facility to the Fort Frances Fire Department for an municipal emergency shelter should the need arise, noted Gushulak.
Fort Frances Times
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