Council approves $5,000 to bring t.v. show to Rainy River

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Rainy River is going to get its 15 or perhaps 30 minutes of fame later this year if all goes well with the deal to bring The Dimestore Fisherman television show here.
The Record conducted an interview on the project with Community Coordinator Andrew Hartnell Thursday, but he and Dimestore asked that the piece run after the council approved the project in an open meeting.
Monday evening they did just that. Council unanimously passed a motion to pay $5,000, half the cost, to bring the program here later this year.
See next week's paper for complete details about when the film crew will be here.

Interim tax levy
Council passed a motion to issue an interim tax bill in March. The idea being that it allows the town to bill taxpayers 50% of their previous year's total tax bill to give the community operating funds until the budget and final tax bill is issued later in the year.
The interim tax bill will be due by March 31, 2010.

Borrowing
The town passed to matters dealing with borrowing Monday.
The first was to borrow $40,351.53 from 2009 Town reserves.
Councillor Brent Anderson asked, "Why are we borrowing this amount from reserves?"
Town Clerk Veldron Vogan said, "It is the amount of the gas tax refund we could not fund into reserves because of cash flow issues."
The second borrowing item was to pass a bylaw authorizing the town to borrow up to but not more than $300,000 from CIBC to meet operating costs while taxes are being collected.

Motion questioned
Councillor Brent Anderson questioned why a motion was needed to approve the cost to repair the generator at the water treatment plant in the amount of $1,912.17, plus installation of parts and taxes.
Clerk Vogan explained that, "We haven't approved our budget yet."
Anderson questioned why it is needed when, "We just approved repairs in much larger amounts for the bobcat (tractor) in our check listing. If what you are saying is right then we should have motions for all of those expenses."
Anderson honed in on the amount saying, "It is not a significant dollar figure (compared to others). It confuses me why some dollar amounts come up and others don't."
At the end of the discussion Anderson and all of council approved the expenditure.

Other business
•Council agreed to a vacancy property tax rebate for the former Gasthaus Restaurant property at the Canadian border. The rebate was granted to Northern Lights Credit Union who currently owns the building.
•Council rehired BDO Dunwoody to be the town's auditor.
•The major renovations to Riverview Manor are set to move forward. Mayor Deb Ewald noted that the building passed all inspections and work will be starting soon. Plans are to install an elevator there and to make the smaller apartments into larger ones.
•Approval to send Administrative Assistant Corey Dyck to a Standalone Elderly Persons Centres OHRS Implementation and Budget Training for 2010-11 in Dryden with all expenses paid was given.
Councillor Gord Armstrong asked what Standalone Elderly Persons Centres are.
Clerk Vogan explained that it has to do with the Seniors Activity Depot. "They are calling them this now and changing how we report."
•Unused vacation time by town Foreman Bob Jenson was allowed to be brought into this calendar year.
•Vacation requests by town crewmen Dan Godin and Leroy Hancharyk were approved.
•Council agreed to send Mayor Ewald and Councillor Gerry Marchuk to the Northern Ontario Municipal Association's Annual General Meeting on Apr. 21-24 with expenses paid. The meeting is in Marathon.
•Council donated $100 to relief efforts in earthquake torn Haiti.