Mo Laidlaw
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC – The regular Pontiac council meeting was held January 21 at the Luskville Community Centre. Finance Director Ginette Chevrier Bottrill and Assistant Director General Geneviève Latulippe attended as well as 15 members of the public.
—- Budget 2020
Mo Laidlaw
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC – The regular Pontiac council meeting was held January 21 at the Luskville Community Centre. Finance Director Ginette Chevrier Bottrill and Assistant Director General Geneviève Latulippe attended as well as 15 members of the public.
—- Budget 2020
The municipality’s $9,001,584 budget is up 6.1% from last year. The bylaw setting the tax rate was adopted by a majority, with Councillor Draper-Maxsom voting against it. “Residential” taxpayers will see a 2.4% tax hike, as will those with farms. For buildings with six or more apartments, the increase is 2.2%, and 2% for “non-residential” (business) properties.
The fee for one garbage wheelie-bin is $164.45, up 14.5%, while the fee for a recycling bin is $63.95, up 19%. Larger containers cost more.
For those living in Quyon with water and sewer mains, the sector tax for water (infrastructure) is $158.84, up 3.6%, the service fee for water is $466.71, up 6.1% and sewer service is $308.38, up 1.6%. Businesses pay more.
—– Renaming municipal buildings
Council resolved to change the name of the Bert Kennedy Centre back to The Quyon Women’s Institute, which used the building from about 1950 to the early 2000s.
The two-storey building was built in 1904 as the Quyon Model School (“Model” implying teachers could train there), and was used as a school until 1950 when Onslow was built. At some point the top floor was destroyed by fire. In April 2006, Council resolved to name the Quyon library the Robert Joyce Municipal Library, and the old school building the Bert Kennedy Seniors’ Hall, to honour two volunteers who spent many hours running the library and taking care of the seniors’ centre, respectively.
—- Roads and another flood acquisition
A statement of costs to maintain the local road network in order to obtain funding from the Ministry of Transport’s PAERRL program lists $410,652 of eligible work on roads and bridges.
The owner of the property at 1112 ch du Ruisseau accepted the Ministry of Public Security’s buy-out for residences flooded in the spring and the property was turned over to the municipality for $1.
—- Public questions
Denis Dubé said the municipality’s communication with citizens could improved. Mayor Joanne Labadie admitted that since their Communications Director left in August 2018, it has been a problem and agreed saying, “we can do better.”
Another ratepayer asked why the once-monthly municipal Bulletin is now only sent every two months. Labadie replied that tough decisions had to be made to save money to keep the tax rate down. The municipality plans to use social media to fill the gaps.
