Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Snow Excuse Tourism Campaign

The Snow Excuse Winter Getaway advertising campaign seems tobe hit with Manitoba residents.

The campaign is a partnership between Tourism Kenora and theKenora Hospitality Alliance.

Heather Paterson is Kenora's Tourism Development Officer and saysthey are promoting all kinds of winter activities.

Paterson says the stay-in-kenora website has seen over 15 hundredhits over the past three days after the final phase of the ad campaign was launched in southern Manitoba and Winnipeg.

Sewer and Water Rates

While city taxes won't be going up a lot this year, you can expect a big hike in your utility bills.

City Council has approved a 5 percent increase in sewer and waterrates as of April 1st.

Finance Manager Karen Brown says they needed to increase ratesto help pay for much needed upgrades to the system.

Increases of five percent are also recommended in each of the nextfour years, but it will be up to the next council to decide whether to implement the higher rates.

Capital Budget

The City of Kenora's capital budget will come in at a whopping24.1 million dollars in 2010.

Most of the major projects on the books have already beenapproved.

That includes the new Kenora Fire Hall on Barsky's Hill,the redevelopment of Highway 17 east, the Norman Discovery Center and Phase Two of the DowntownRevitalization project.

Next year, the city's capital budget is supposed todropped to just 2.7 million dollars.

58 percent of those projects are being funded through grants from the federal and provincial levels of government.

Kenora Taxes Going Up

Property taxes will be going up slightly in the City of Kenora this year.

City Council approved a 0.43 percent increase in the millrate at last night's special meeting.

Councillor Dave McCann delivered the budget and says the city benefitted from a higher assessment base in 2010.

McCann says the city also managed to save 251 thousand dollarson policing in the 2010 budget over last year, and saw increased funding from the province through the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund.