It’s tax time again, and property owners and businesses in Fort Frances should be seeing their bills arrive in the mail anytime now, Administration and Finance manager Darryl Allan said at Monday night’s council meeting.
“Most residents should be receiving theirs today,” Allan noted Tuesday morning, adding the bills were mailed out Friday.
Saying this is the first time they’ve sent out the bills with the town’s new computer system, Allan said the bills will include a new feature—a box noting special charges or credits to people’s tax bills.
“There may be an amount in that if there’s been any changes due to property reassessments,” he remarked, adding this is shown in detail for the first time as opposed to being “bundled” into the total to be paid.
The bills feature two amounts to pay, due on Feb. 28 and March 31, and will total no more than 50 percent of the previous year’s total taxes. Due to adjustments in commercial taxes, this amount likely will be closer to 35 percent for businesses, said Allan.
A second tax bill will be mailed out in June, with payments due at the end of June and then the end of July.
Allan noted anyone with unpaid taxes (or arrears) as of Feb. 7 also will receive a separate notice in the mail soon.
Coun. Neil Kabel asked whether it was unusual to be sending out tax bills so early.
“We’re finally on time. They’ve always been delayed for some reason or another,” replied Allan. “We have a policy in place that this would be the time of year to send the bills out, but it’s the first time in years we’ve been able to do it.”
Allan noted any questions about your tax bills will be answered by tax collector Ed Katona, who can be contacted at 274-5323 ext. 241.
Also Monday night, town council received notice of a five percent levy increase from the Northwestern Health Unit for 2003, and referred it to the Administration and Finance executive committee for a recommendation.
The new rate is $36.75 per capita—up from $35 in 2002.
Council also heard a presentation by John Albanese, chair of the Northwestern Health Unit’s board of director, and municipal appointee Bill Martin on current health unit affairs.
In other business at Monday night’s meeting, council
•passed bylaws adopt the Community Improvement Plan and designate Community Improvement Project Areas;
•decided to wait on passing a bylaw to fix remuneration and benefits for elected councillors (as reported in the Jan. 29 edition of the Times) until more details were known as to how councillors in other regional municipalities were paid;
•saw a presentation by teacher Dana Kosowick’s Grade 6 class from Robert Moore called “If you are not from the Fort” (this presentation was put together in response to the Centennial Celebration Advisory Committee’s invitation for school participation in 2003 activities);
•passed a resolution brought forward from Mark McCaig, president and CEO of the Fort Frances Power Corp., to declare the FFPC continue to be recognized as a “for profit” corporation as requested by subsection 142 (1) of the Electricity Act, 1998;
•referred bid proposal guidelines for the Ontario Senior Games—Winterfest 2005 to the Community Services executive committee for a recommendation;
•approved a request from the Heart and Stroke Foundation to proclaim February as “Heart Month” in the Town of Fort Frances; and
•agreed to process break-open ticket licence applications, in conformance to provincial regulations and rules, for the Muskie Blue Line Club at Sparky’s Confectionary and the Rainbow Rhythmics Club at We-R-Entertainment.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
