Staff
Town council will vote on a bylaw to impose a jump in user fees for 2010 at its final meeting of the year tonight.
If passed, the bylaw will mean a two percent hike for most user fees for local services, whether they be building permits or gym memberships.
Most user fees will kick in Jan. 1 although some others, such as those for the Memorial Sports Centre, won’t come into effect until June 1 because ice rental fees, for example, already have been contracted out for the 2009-10 hockey season.
A couple of user fees that will go up more than two percent are bag tags, which will rise from $1.75 to $2 (a 12.5 percent increase), while the minimum charge for tipping at the landfill will jump from $15 to $16 (a six percent increase).
Other tipping fees, like the rate per tonne, only will go up two percent.
As well, user fees that currently include the GST (such as ice surface and pool rentals, auditorium rentals, boat slips, cemetery-related fees, airport fuel, etc.) will go up another eight percent come July 1 when the new HST is implemented.
If a user fee does not currently include the GST, it will not have the HST added to it.
Water and sewer rates for 2010 are not a part of the user fee schedule and will be discussed separately during the budget process.
Tonight’s meeting is scheduled to start around 5:50 p.m. at the Civic Centre.
The committee of the whole will meet first in-camera at 5:30.
Other items on the agenda include:
•a renewal lease with Vianet for space on the water tower;
•a report on semi-annual testing of lead in the water distribution system;
•a revision of the town’s winter control operations policy;
•a report on the town’s agreement re: meeting investigator;
•a financial request from the Fort Frances Lakers;
•a 2009 surplus consideration;
•a report on the preliminary 2010 operating and capital budgets;
•a report on capital long-term debt financing report;
•a verbal update from Community Services manager George Bell regarding the status of outdoor rinks;
•a request from the Economic Development Advisory Committee re: a proposed Economic Development Commission;
•a bylaw regulating fences in the Town of Fort Frances;
•a bylaw to authorize temporary borrowing to meet current expenditures of the corporation for the year 2010;
•a bylaw for the purpose of approving the minutes of current council; and
•an invitation from the Ministry of Natural Resources re: a review of an approved minor amendment to the 2007-17 Forest Management Plan for the Crossroute Forest.
Items on the in-camera agenda will include:
•appointments to the Committee of Adjustment; and
•security of municipal property.
