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Winfield, Oyama, Okanagan Centre and Carrs Landing since 1951
your home is where my heart is
May 13, 2015
The province of B.C. is spending $2.5 million to improve safety on a stretch of Highway 97 between UBC Okanagan campus and Commonwealth Road in Lake Country.
UBCO to Commonwealth
Inside
Water conservation
ALISTAIR WATERS
While the Okanagan Valley may seem to have an abundance of the stuff, new conservation efforts are underway to teach us to use less water at home. ...............................
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ALISTAIR WATERS/BLACK PRESS
Dance and gymnastics
THERE’S a lot of ground to cover, but the B.C. government plans to separate opposing lanes of traffic from Kelowna to Lake Country with
All nice and close to each other, new facilities for dance classes and gymnastics training have opened in Lake Country ...............................
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Flyers ■ Bulk Barn ■ Home Depot ■ Jysk ■ Rona ■ Save On Foods ■ Shoppers Drug Mart ■ Smart Source
concrete medians. Central Okanagan MLAs Steve Thomson (inset left) and Norm Letnick unveiled a sign trumpeting the project our tax dollars are being used for.
Aiming to cut down on traffic carnage through the Central Okanagan, medians will be installed over a nine-kilometre stretch in two phases. The first, a 7.5-kilometre stretch between UBCO and just north of Duck Lake, is slated for completion by early September. The second phase, a 1.5-kilometre stretch, has several business accesses along it and will be the subject of public consultation. It is expected to be complete by early 2016. The work, announced by local MLAs Norm Letnick (Kelowna-Lake Country) and
SEE MEDIANS A3
▼ LAKE COUNTRY DISTRICT
Taxes go up, but still low by comparison Lake Country residents will see a municipal tax increase of 3.13 per cent in 2015. District council gave three readings to its 2015 tax rate bylaw at its regular meeting on Tuesday, May 5, and was to meet May 12 to formally adopt the bylaw. The tax hike equates to approximately a $51 increase for an average single-family dwelling assessed at about $492,000, according to the district. The tax increase includes the borrowing bylaw for the
CN Rail corlion compared ridor, passed in to $2.6 billion in last month’s ref2014. erendum. Lake CounWhen it try remains comes to total one of the lowtax revenue from er taxed muniproperty taxes, cipalities in the the district will Okanagan and bring in $10.1 draws the mamillion. The jority of its taxes Rose Bronswyk total 2015 operfrom residential ating and capital property taxes over budget is $29.8 million with industrial taxes in a situation the total taxable assessment that has worsened over the last in Lake Country of $2.7 bildecade, according to a report
to council by Rose Bronswyk, Lake Country’s chief financial officer. In 2006, 84.3 per cent of total municipal property taxes collected were from residential properties in Lake Country while in 2015, the figure has risen to 86.9 per cent, but has been fairly stable for the past seven years, wrote Bronswyk. When it comes to comparing other municipalities, Bronswyk compiled other Okanagan municipalities tax rates, combining municipal
and regional district tax rates for a fair comparison. That pushed Lake Country’s rate to 4.02 per cent, the second lowest in the Okanagn Valley, only to Summerland’s 3.63 per cent. Other jurisdictions combined municipal/regional district rate include Peachland (4.14), West Kelowna (4.24), Kelowna (4.41), Coldstream (4.63), Penticton (4.76), Vernon (5.18) and Salmon Arm (5.23). newsroom@ lakecountrynews.net