Duane Hicks
Fort Frances Mayor Roy Avis would like any tax increases this year to be as low as possible.
During a budget meeting yesterday afternoon, Mayor Avis said he’d like to see the residential tax hike limited to one percent, including any increases to property assessments from MPAC.
“I think it’s about time the residents get a break,” he noted.
Town council passed a 1.9 percent residential levy increase last year while assessment values have been going up over the last four years, the mayor added.
Treasurer Laurie Witherspoon said a one percent hike will be difficult to achieve given some households’ assessments go up half-a-percent while others go up 10 percent.
“It’s complicated because of the ratios, because of your classes, because of restrictions,” she explained.
“We have to look at everything at one time,” she added. “It’s not an overall assumption.”
Witherspoon noted the town also needs to know what the new education tax rate will be this year, which has not been announced yet.
Council will take a look at tax scenarios and property assessment changes at its next budget meeting.
While work on the capital budget is all but complete, the operating budget is awaiting more numbers, including information from the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board.
The budget likely won’t be ready for passage until April.
Sidewalks, meters
Also at yesterday’s meeting, there was a brief discussion about replacing the brick sidewalk on both sides of the 200 block of Scott Street.
Council subsequently decided it would have to wait to see how the new sidewalks would fit in with the development of the Rainy Lake Market Square.
Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown noted the market square project could include features such as new tree planters on the sidewalk, but it’s not possible to know how much they’ll cost right now (it’s all conceptual at this point).
The new planters are dug into the ground and stunt the way the trees grow.
Brown said the town wants to address the tripping hazards on the uneven sidewalk, but do it in a “beautifying way” in accordance with the new market square.
The 300 block of Scott Street then would be redone next year.
The town also will be looking at the feasibility of parking meters downtown, as identified in its strategic plan last year.
The meters ideally would help generate revenue to help pay to maintain the market square, as well help move traffic.
Whether the meters become a reality depends on what the town finds out when it studies the issue this spring.
But if they do, the meters also will have to be considered when the new sidewalks are installed.
