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May 22, 2014 | 56 pages
Inside NEWS
InsideOttawaValley.com
Maybe time for Renfrew to change tax-rate approach Steve Newman steve.newman@metroland.com
The race is on. – Page 3–
SPORTS
Raiders battle for gold. – Page 34 –
NATURE
News – Renfrew had the highest residential tax rates of any Renfrew County municipality in 2013. But in a presentation to council May 12, treasurer Keray O’Reilly said that’s highly misleading. Renfrew moved to the top of the class, after sitting behind Deep River for several years. O’Reilly explained that several local municipalities have lower rates because they already have special tax levies that aren’t part of their tax rates. And maybe it’s time Renfrew did the same, suggested O’Reilly. The same amount of taxes is raised with either approach, but a lower tax rate and additional garbage level could provide a more soothing public relations perspective for the public. O’Reilly says he knows at least four Renfrew County municipalities
have separate levies for waste management, namely Laurentian Valley, Pembroke, Arnprior and McNabBraeside, therefore lower tax rates than they would otherwise have. If Renfrew was to take a similar approach, Renfrew could have removed about $540,000 for garbage collection, recycling and related landfill costs and generated that money through a special levy. If recovered this way from about 3,000 Renfrew households, the special charge would have been about $180 per household in 2014 and reduced the residential tax rate about eight per cent, from .00854526 to .00786502. O’Reilly’s presentation explained what rates were needed, in different tax classes, to generate the $6.9 million in tax levies from the budget approved in February 2014. Renfrew’s total tax levy increased 2.5 per cent, or $173,100, over last year.
LUCY HASS/METROLAND
Tale as old as time Students at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School treated audiences to a production of Beauty and the Beast last week at the high school. This opening scene features Ella Narraway as Belle and Jon Carlson as her father, Maurice.
New library, kindergarten class part of St. Michael’s expansion Steve Newman steve.newman@metroland.com
The hummingbirds are back. – Pages 46 and 47 –
News - Sometimes you take a loss for a gain. That’s certainly the case for the Admaston-Bromley Public Library, whose building has been removed to make room for major expansion at St. Michael’s
Catholic School in Douglas. Demolition of the separate structure located between the school and outdoor rink was completed by May 13. New construction plans call for a state-of-the-art kindergarten class, library and extra offices within an addition at the northwest end of the elementary
school. The total cost remains confidential until all aspects of the project are tendered. The move to temporary quarters, in one of two portable classrooms, required the efforts of about 25 volunteers and the library’s only employee, librarian Jane Wouda. See LIBRARY, page 2
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