The Town of Fort Frances won’t be accepting Mastercard or Visa as a means of payment for bills after some investigation by administration found it’s not worth the convenience it previously was thought to be.
“The general consensus is it’s only a way to lose revenue,” said Coun. Roy Avis, speaking on behalf of the Administration and Finance executive committee.
“If you start letting people pay with credit cards, you’re opening yourself up to a situation which is unacceptable,” he added.
Following the rationale that the town would have to pay a fee up to two percent to a credit card company for each transaction, the town was bound to lose too much money.
“If a business came in to pay a $100,000 tax bill, and there was a two percent charge to the town, that’d be $2,000,” noted Coun. Avis.
Coun. Deane Cunningham said the town brought in more than $8 million in taxes paid in 2002. If everyone paid with a credit card, it would mean a loss of $160,000 to the town.
“And with plans where you can get Air Miles, and so forth, we’d have a lot of people who’d want to pay that way,” Coun. Avis remarked. “We’d have to raise our rates.”
“Even if they have to use credit cards, the opportunity exists for people to get cash advances through the bank,” said acting CAO Mark McCaig.
“We felt we had enough avenues of payment to use,” he added, noting the town currently accepts cash, cheques, Interac, and banking transactions via the phone and Internet.
The possibility of allowing the public to pay town bills with credit cards was brought forward last month by Mayor Glenn Witherspoon. Town staff followed this direction, and reported its findings to the Administration and Finance executive committee for a recommendation.
Also at last night’s meeting, which was delayed a day due to the Thanksgiving holiday, council voted against a bylaw to assume, stop up, and close part of a lane south of 410 Mosher Ave.
This came following a letter of objection from Ann-Elizabeth Johnson regarding the partial lane closure had been received by council.
Johnson stated in the letter that the proposed sale of the land will restrict access to her property.
She added she’s planning to build a garage on her property down the road and is concerned about this restricted access, as well as a lowered property value.
Council unanimously voted against the bylaw on the grounds that Johnson and her neighbour, Carolyn Murray, were not consulted prior to the matter coming to the Planning and Development executive committee and forwarded as a bylaw.
Also last night, council:
•referred a request for a financial donation for the fifth-annual “Scott Street Scare” from organizer Sandra McNay to the Administration and Finance executive committee for a recommendation;
•referred a request for financial assistance from the Royal Canadian Legion Br. #29 regarding its annual poppy campaign to the Administration and Finance executive committee for a recommendation;
•agreed to proclaim Oct. 30-Nov. 11, 2003 as Legion Weeks in Fort Frances, as per the request of the Royal Canadian Legion Br. #29;
•agreed to forward a request from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund regarding approval of amendments to the NOHFC funding agreement for the Northern Networks Trade Conference to the mayor and council for signatures;
•referred a request for consideration from Mark Fontana regarding additional dockage with a crosswalk along the waterfront, and the possibility of hiring a summer student as bylaw officer to increase patrols along the La Verendrye Parkway, to the Traffic Safety and Community Services executive committees for a recommendation, with input from the Operations and Facilities executive committee, and to the 2004 budget process;
•agreed to proclaim Dec. 1, 2003 as “World AIDS Day” and Nov. 24-Dec. 1 as “Canadian HIV/AIDS Awareness Week” in the Town of Fort Frances, as per a request from the Canadian Public Health Association;
•referred a letter from the Municipal Property Assessment Corp., regarding the management of property assessment complaints, to the Administration and Finance executive committee; and
•passed a bylaw to approve a contract for installation of airfield guidance signage at the municipal airport to Moncrief Construction Ltd.
Fort Frances Times
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