PENINSULA Game face on
Golden performances
Central Saanich’s Ryleigh Bissenden is on the Island’s wheelchair hoops squad, page 3 Black Press C O M M U N I T Y
N E W S
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NEWS REVIEW
Members of the Peninsula Figure Skating Club do very well at the regionals, page 19
Friday, February 21, 2014
Town tax rate set at 2.61%
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Sidney council won’t increase industrial taxes in their 2014 budget Steven Heywood News staff
Sidney homeowners will pay, on average, $33.66 more in 2014 on their municipal tax bill. Sidney council on Tuesday night made a few changes to the 2014 portion of their five-year financial plan to lessen the tax impact on their residents, commercial property owners and industrial businesses. Their initial overall tax increase this year was at 2.86 per cent (or $36 for the year for an average home) when the budget deliberations began. Sidney is facing increased service costs with the addition of a new RCMP officer and a new full-time firefighter, among other costs. To bring that rate down, council voted to defer a few items from the budget. A planned study on the replacement of the Reay Creek dam, estimated to cost $20,000, was eliminated this year. Another $15,000 was saved by dropping plans for the Beacon Avenue wharf replacement study. Another $9,000 was saved when council decided to cut in half their planned traffic calming plans for Bowerbank Drive and build only one small roundabout this year. With the Reay Creek dam money offset by a loss of $20,000, the overall tax hike this year will be 2.61 per cent. Town staff now have until April to finalize the financial plan for council. That loss of $20,000 came from council’s decision not to standardize its light industrial tax rate. Council has been lobbied against that by local industrial business since the Town announced last year it wanted to bring that rate in line with the practices in other municipalities. Please see: Council fund survives cuts, page 6
Devon MacKenzie/News staff
Levi, 9, and Anya Viinikka, 7, hold a giant cheque presented to them by (from left) Ken Mariette, Ron Basi, Al Kraatz (as the lion), Ken Burkowski, Lorne Jones and Larry Rhodes from the Central Saanich Lions Club. The Club donated $500 this week to the the brother and sister team who launched a mosquito net fundraiser at Kelset Elementary in January.
Lions boost kids’ net revenue Central Saanich Club donates to Kelset mosquito net project Devon MacKenzie News staff
After seeing the story on Levi and Anya Viinikka’s mosquito net project at Kelset Elementary School in January, the Central Saanich Lions club mobilized to do what they do best — give back. “As soon as we saw the story in the Peninsula News Review it jumped right off the page, and we knew we wanted to support the effort,” said Ron Basi, Presi-
dent of the Central Saanich Lions Club. Club members attended the school on Tuesday and presented a cheque for $500 to Levi, 9, and Anya, 7, to put towards the school-wide fundraising effort. “We’re really excited at how much we already raised,” said Levi. The brother and sister team spearheaded the initiative to raise $4,050 by Feb. 28 to go towards purchasing mosquito nets for families in Zimbabwe. The nets, which cost about $10 each, are
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designed to keep mosquitos at bay while families sleep, therefore decreasing the chances of malaria. Schools all over Canada are participating in the initiative which is being sponsored through Plan Canada. So far Kelset is ranking at about ninth place in terms of funds raised, said Levi and Anya’s mother, Jennifer. Please see: Kelset students have raised, page 7