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Friday, March 6, 2015
Vol. 7 • Issue 71
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Nelson council proposes 2% tax increase
Nelson’s Sonia Kohout, who recently turned 100, has been a hairdresser for most of her life — she gave a friend a perm at 96. Will Johnson photo
One hundred years of beautiful hair
Centenarian Sonia Kohout celebrates with the community
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WILL JOHNSON Nelson Star onia Kohout has been cutting hair her entire life. She started as a little girl in Czechoslovakia, continued during her years in Paris, and ultimately set up shop longterm in the Kootenays. And though she celebrated her 100th birthday on Feb. 17, Kohout is still pretty handy with a pair of scissors. “I remember she gave me a perm when she was 96,” said Ingrid Wyles, who was visiting her Wednesday morning at Nelson’s Mountain Lake Seniors Community. Kahout specially primped her hair for the occasion, and painted her nails pink. And though she has lost most of her hearing, she shared some of her worldly wisdom and signature sense of humour with the Star. Kohout recently celebrated her induction into the centenarian club with a visit from mayor Deb Kozak. In a subsequent Facebook post, Kozak wished her a happy year ahead. “Her friend Suzanne Raschdorf told me that if Sonia did your hair, you had to take an afternoon — that included coffee, cake and visiting,” said Kozak, noting that Kohout and her husband lived in Six Mile for many years. “Happy birthday Sonia and thank you for inviting me.” When asked if she enjoyed her hairdressing
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career, Kohout nodded and smiled. But when asked if she enjoyed talking with her customers, she groaned and rolled her eyes. “Sometimes,” she said. “Sometimes.” One of the highlights of Kohout’s life was befriending Thomas J. Bata, the greatgrandson of the Bata Shoe company founder. Her friend went on to run the company from the 1940s until the 1980s. When asked about her memories of Bata, she described one of the factories she visited with him. “Huge, huge factory,” she said. Asked whether she had a particularly fond memory that she wanted to share, Kohout couldn’t pin down a particular one. “Everything is the best thing,” she said. While preparing for her photo to be taken, Kohout began to hum the tune to Jingle Bells, swishing her legs back and forth, dancing in her chair. As her fellow residents looked on, she laughed joyously, celebrating her centurylong journey to this point.
Mayor Deb Kozak with Sonia Kohout
BILL METCALFE Nelson Star Nelson city council is proposing a two per cent tax increase this year that is largely intended to cover inflation. “Our biggest task has been to hold the line and hold steady so there are only inflationary increases,” said Mayor Deb Kozak. The increase, according to chief financial officer Colin McClure, would cost the owner of a $320,000 home $28 per year and would generate $150,000 in revenue for the city. Of the city’s $40-million budget, about $18-million is for operations and that’s where residents’ tax money goes: fire, police, garbage, cemetery, parks, transit, library, roads, salaries and benefits, and so on. Salaries and benefits make up about 64 per cent of the operations budget. This means those funds are committed through collective agreements with the four unions representing city employees. Water, sewer and hydro are not part of the operations budget because they are selffunded through their own taxes and fees. Some of the operations money goes into reserves that the city maintains for such things as equipment, buildings, the airport, and downtown and waterfront upgrades. In most years, tax revenue
only pays for about half of the operations expenses, and the city must make up the rest from other sources including grants from other levels of government, and transit, parking ticket, and garbage revenue. The city has created a new source of income this year by hiring out its financial staff to administer the budgets of Salmo, Slocan, and Silverton. This year, with a two per cent tax increase, the proposed operations budget will come up short by $24,615, according to McClure. But this will be more than offset by another category of income that is new this year: $140,000 from Multi Material BC, the company that has taken over recycling in much of the province. Multi Material BC has hired the city to carry out recycling pick-up in Nelson. That will leave the draft operations budget with a $130,000 surplus. The question is where to spend it. After an analysis of the status of the city’s approximately 30 buildings during the past year, McClure said, the city has concluded it needs to add $50,000 to building maintenance. There is a proposed $25,000 to hire a temporary employee to catch up on a backlog of legal updates to bylaws, $15,000 for a one time city-wide yard waste cleanup, and $50,000 Continued on Page 4
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