WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2012
PROFILE: Houston Christian turns 50
NEWS: Sinkhole repairs underway
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37 days... ‘til Relay for Life June 22nd, 2012 “Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back”
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NO. 20 $1.35 Inc. HST
Forestry staff to update Morice timber numbers By Andrew Hudson Houston Today
Submitted photo
PICNIC Bear
Children enjoy a big surprise at the Teddy Bears Picnic hosted by the Houston library and Houston Link to Learning. Nearly 50 kids and their parents came out for arts, crafts and games after the children had their immunization shots at the nearby Houston Health Centre. Child care workers from a number of local service groups were also on hand to help out.
B.C. forestry staff say their timber inventory is like a 20 yearold pickup truck—dated, but good enough. That was the simple answer to BulkleyNechako mayors and rural directors who worry Victoria lacks the data it needs to safely judge whether it should relax some logging rules in its quest to save Interior forestry jobs from the pine beetle epidemic. “Whatever we do, we as a ministry will have to present balanced information, the scorecard, about the pro’s and con’s of any change,” said Kevin Kriese, the assistant deputy minister to B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations who spoke at a Regional District
“ “Whatever we do, we as a ministry will have to present balanced information.” - Kevin Kriese
meeting last Thursday. Kriese said forestry staff are busy shooting new aerial photos to get a better picture of how much saleable timber is left in B.C.’s most beetle-affected areas. “It would have been pointless to do them five years ago, because we would have been taking photos where there are still trees dying from the pine,” he added. See TIMBER on Page 2
District taxes up slightly in low-spending, upkeep budget By Andrew Hudson Houston Today
Tax rates in the District of Houston will go up an overall 2.4 per cent this year. Calling it a “maintenance budget,” councillors passed a new 2012 to 2016 financial plan that is largely focused on upkeep rather
than new projects. Home owners will see a slight rise in the portion of property tax collected directly by the District—a 32 cent bump per $1,000 of assessed value. For a home valued at $122,000, that means a District tax bill of $1,054 in 2012, $41 higher than the
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“Growth is great, but we have to try and maintain what we have.”
$1,013 collected in 2011. Those figures also include hospital and regional district
- Tandra Bamsey taxes, but not the taxes that go to schools or BC Assessment. Nor do they in-
clude water and sewer taxes, which have not changed since 2010. Taxes make up half the District’s $8.4-million revenue for 2012, and the majority of those taxes—48 per cent—come from major and light industry. In the budget report, councillors noted that they plan to
reduce Houston’s reliance on forestry in the long term. Major industries, such as Houston’s sawmills, do get some tax breaks from the District when they make upgrades to that boost their assessment values. Speaking to councillors, Chief Financial
Officer Tandra Bamsey says that the District did see new construction in 2011, which boosted its total taxes by 0.5 per cent. But at the same time, she said the assessed value of Houston properties still fell from $218 to $216 million. See BUDGET on Page 2