Deal in the works to recoup taxes on Koeneman property

Ken Johnston
Editor

A deal is in the works to see Rainy River recoup the back taxes on the Koeneman Lumber Company.
Rainy River Town Council held a meeting Friday morning to review a proposal from Dick Koeneman’s lawyer, Larry Phillips. While council would not reveal the amount of cash Koeneman would put down on the approximately $70,000 in back taxes owed, Town Administrator Deb Bowman said Monday that if accepted and followed through by Koeneman Lumber, the town would see a down payment and so much per month until the arrears are cleared up.
Bowman said that the town was finalizing the deal with its lawyer Monday and planned to send it to Koeneman’s the same day. She noted that Koeneman Lumber will likely have a limited time to come up with the down payment.
The lumber company’s physical assets were seized in early March by the Town of Rainy River through a bailiff.
Koeneman said that he has had difficulty making ends meet at the plant in Rainy River due to actions taken by his own government. When he constructed the plant Koeneman said there was no restrictions on the amount of softwood lumber he could ship to the United States. However that changed not long after he opened for business. Working with local Member of Parliament for the Kenora-Rainy River Riding, Bob Nault, Koeneman Lumber secured a quota to ship 900,000 board feet per year. Koenamen said that amounts to about half a truck load of wood per week. “We needed 8-14 million board feet per year to make money,” explained Koeneman.
With the softwood lumber export issue on the front burner again between the United States and Canada, Koeneman feels that even with the 29% in tariffs to be imposed on Canadian softwood exports in May, that he could make money providing there is no limit on the amount of wood he could ship to the U.S.
However, Koeneman said that the Town of Rainy River needs to address its tax rates for industry. Koeneman claims that Rainy River has the highest tax ratio in the West Rainy River District. He said it sits at 5.849741. According to him Emo is 4.849308, Fort Frances is 5.1605423, Chapple is 1.9308703 and Crozier is 1.9308703.
Koeneman said the high rates he cited for Rainy River combined with the assessment of $357,000, which he felt was very high, makes doing business in Rainy River very unattractive. Koeneman admits that he did not know he could appeal the property assessment values and failed to do so. He feels the assessment is to high and is currently working on having it reevaluated.