The Proudfoot Four Screw Their Own

 Submitted by a concerned citizen:

As your readers are aware, Mr. Tim Brown (or his company Something Something Wealth Corporation) has purchased the Outfitters Property at the corners of Highway 518, Chetwynd, and Higgins Roads. The purpose we were told was to build storage units. The property was rezoned to commercial and to reward Mr. Tim Brown for his fund-raising for Dingwall & Sainsbury the Proudfoot Four waived the $1000 re-zoning fee.

Well now, it seems Mr. Brown is not only going to add new storage units to the Outfitters property, Mr. Brown is also going to reopen the Outfitters General Store. But wait a minute. When the Outfitters General Store closed several years ago, Silversands added a General Store to Whiskey Jacks Restaurant.

And didn't Whiskey Jacks cater last year's Grass and Loon Lakes Residents’ Group annual member’s meeting? So, where does this leave Silversands/Whiskey Jacks now that key individuals of the GLLRG ie Tomlinson, Dingwall, Sainsbury, Wadsworth, have thrown their support behind Mr. Brown's venture?

Sorry Liz, it looks like the Proudfoot Four and the GLLRG only look out for themselves. We wonder how the mostly fair minded in our Proudfoot community feel about these antics. And to the Proudfoot community, and more specifically the waterfront properties on Loon & Grass Lakes, you owe your Proudfoot Four Council big time. After all, in the 2011 Budget, they reduced the tax rate by 9.5% which coincidentally is the average increase in your property re-assessments for 2011. How is this possible when Municipal Revenues are down and Operational Costs are up (a loss of approximately $550,000)? Very simple. The previous council left Reserves in excess of $1,000,000 and a surplus. The Proudfoot Four are taking the shortfall in property tax revenues out of Reserves and calling them "Grants".

Next year is the 4th and final year of the property reassessment phase-in and the Loon & Grass Lake waterfront properties will again see their re-assessments go up on average 9.5%. If the Proudfoot Four Council pulls the same trick, the Town's reserves will be seriously depleted, and we will have an Operational shortfall going into 2013 of $1,100,000 or more. Well, ladies and gentlemen, what do you suppose will happen then?

Property taxes will need to be increased significantly, at least to make up the 19% tax rate reduction in 2011 and 2012. Well the waterfront property owners can say "fine". We got 2 years of no tax increase and now we will play catch up. Well, not so fast. A 19+% tax increase in 2013 will be across the board and will hit everyone equally, including those who have been subsidizing under-assessed waterfront property owners for years. Those folks are our elderly, our seniors, our widows, our under employed, our unemployed, our young families, our disadvantaged. This could be the last straw to force some of these residents out of their homes.

Way to go, Proudfoot Four. We expect after you have destroyed the Town of Kearney, you will list your cottages and move on to some other unsuspecting town you can destroy.

Thanks for your letter. We knew about the budget shenanigans, but Tim Brown and the Proudfoot Four screwing their own will definitely create a bit of a stir in Proudfoot. Maybe.