The Community
Press Telling your story
Volume 112, Issue 45
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
$1 Including GST
FORESTBURG CLASS OF 2020 MARKS SPECIAL DAY WITH PARADE
LESLIE CHOLOWSKY PHOTOS
Forestburg School’s Class of 2020 were celebrated Friday, May 8, in the village with a special parade that included photos of the graduates and celebratory messages. The parade route passed by every Grade 12 student’s home in the village, and out-of-town students gathered on Main Street. The grads decided to get decked out in the outfits they would have worn to the traditional ceremony that would have been held that day prior to COVID-19 gathering restrictions cancelling the event. See more photos and story P9. Above: Jayden Blumhagen watched the parade in her lovely grad dress. Across the street, these four dapper classmates: Brayden Kuefler, Dante Hebert, Jeremy Walker, and Mitch Norman waved to the passing parade vehicles.
Flagstaff County holding the line on 2020 mill rates Leslie Cholowsky Editor
Flagstaff County Council passed the 2020 Tax Rate Bylaw during their regular meeting held Wednesday, May 8, holding the line on any mill rate increases for this year. One difference between last year’s tax bylaw and this year is that Recreation funding and Flagstaff Waste’s requisition will no longer appear separately on the tax bylaw, Council heard. Recreation funding has been included in the general mill rate, but Financial Officer Deb Brodie told Council, “There are no changes to the actual rates, just a difference in how these are collected on paper.” Council heard that Flagstaff Waste fees will now be collected from hamlet residents through
their utility bills. Another minor change in the mill rate bylaw shows sub classes for residential between rural and urban residents. Along with revenue collected for Flagstaff County operations, property taxes include requisitions from Flagstaff Regional Housing Group, Designated Industrial Property (DIP)(does not apply to all residents), and School taxes. These are set by the organizations or province, and are added to the municipal mill rates. The 2020 requisition for Seniors housing was reduced from last year, as was the DIP rate. The province also rolled back a planned increase on education, with a slight adjustment on how these are applied to residential/farm and non-residential. Taxes are calculated by
applying the mill rates set by Council to the assessment value of property. Total Assessments from 2019 to 2020 (always based on values from July 1 of the previous year) rose slightly from 2019’s figure of $1,477,482,040 to $1,477,820,340 with reduced assessments for farmland, residential, and non-residential offset by a slight increase in machinery and equipment. Council also made the final adjustments to the 2020 budget, with the major change being an anticipated increase of $1.7 million for bad debt in uncollected taxes, for a total line budget of $4.5 million. Council approved other minor changes, including a decrease in the fuel budget, decrease in wages and benefits, a de-
crease of $1 allocated for road construction reserve, an increase for Economic Development, partially due to the BREOC funding approved during Council’s last meeting and partly for the broadband project, an increase of $600,000 allocated for the Mill Rate Stabilization Reserve, and utilization of over $2 million in grant funding for all capital infrastructure projects instead of reserves. Council discussed their desire for budget comparisons to the previous year overall. Councillor Melvin Thompson asked, “Can we make the statements clearer to the public and ourselves, showing actual last year expenses, proposed this-year expenses, and variances?” Brodie advised that the 2020 budget expenses were down $1.65 million overall from last year.
Councillor Erik Skoberg said, “Even with today’s increase, it is important to note that we have still reduced the overall budget from the previous year.” Council also passed a new bylaw that would allow county taxpayers to pay taxes by installment. Bylaw 09/20, the Tax Penalty and Tax Installment Payment Plan bylaw replaces previous bylaws, and applies tax penalties the same as in prior years, with unpaid taxes earning a penalty of 12 percent if unpaid by Oct. 16, and a further
six per cent penalty if unpaid by May 1. The tax installment payment plan will allow taxpayers to spread payments out over a 12 month period from January to December. As installment payments must match year end, Council heard, ratepayers who want to start this program in 2020 must first pay a lump-sum for the portion of the year that has passed, then will pay equal installments for the remaining months in the year. Taxes must be current to be eligible for installment payments.
Deadline for the May 20 edition: Tuesday, May 19 at noon