Not all doom and gloom, folks

We have taken Kings County council to task on a number of occasions over the last few years for allowing matters to drag on far too long, not handling political hot potatoes and seeming unable to define a legacy that will live on past their current term.

However, it isn’t all doom and gloom. We think council and staff are deserving of a pat on the back for a couple pieces of recent business.

The first is the Balsor-Eaglecrest central water system. The matter dragged on for about four years. Several area residents have experienced poor water quality and quantity and some private wells were even found to contain arsenic. County council and staff began working immediately toward rectifying the problem, but the wheels of government are sometimes slow to turn.

Indeed, there were moments of high drama along the way. A few months ago, a petition process took place. In order for the project to go through, 40 per cent of affected residents had to be in support. The county got the required level of support just as the deadline was set to expire. Provincial funding was secured, with the stipulation that it be spent by March 31, 2008.

However, tender results for the project came in higher than anticipated and the initiative was in trouble. Luckily, the province still provided the funding, so long as it’s used only for the project. It looked as though residents would have to dig much deeper into their pockets to pay for their portion of the costs, but council stepped up and agreed to cover the increase.

If council hadn’t taken the bull by the horns and shown this leadership, the project probably would have failed. The level of residential support probably would have slipped.

The bottom line is this: no one wants to have to live with the constant threat of contaminated water and we wouldn’t want to see our neighbours poisoned with arsenic. To any residential ratepayer elsewhere in the county who would complain about having to subsidize a portion of the project, put yourself in the shoes of the people of Balsor and Eaglecrest. If you can, this one’s a no-brainer.

Speaking of taxes, another piece of business deserving of a pat on the back is the proposed 2008-2009 operating budget. The budget has yet to be ratified by council, but for the first time in recent memory no increase to the residential tax rate is being recommended.

Residents have been hit with a double-whammy of assessment and tax rate increases in recent years. If the county’s proposed budget goes through, residential ratepayers will only have to worry about higher taxes coming through assessment increases. County staff deserves as much credit as council for making this happen.

It would be easy to be cynical and point out that this is an election year, so councillors were probably a little trigger-shy when it came to raising taxes.

However, the bottom line is residential ratepayers in Kings County probably won’t be faced with an overly onerous property tax increase this year, they might end up with a few extra dollars in their pockets and we can still look forward to the level of service to which we’ve become accustomed.

Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen, on a job well done.