CLEARWATER COUNTY TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

By Marianne Cole

The Annual General Meeting of the Clearwater County Taxpayers Association was held on Thursday, November 10 in Leslieville with 34 people in attendance.  Highlights of the meeting were as follows:
 Year in Review  Great response has been received from county residents with our efforts to gather their opinion and keep them informed of happenings in the county.  Highlights include:

Our taxpayer survey in February
The Wrap (four page cover) on the Western Star advertising the county building plans and the open house held at Dovercourt in May

Our latest information page in the Western Star where we presented information on the county survey taking place along with financial charts from the 2015 audited financial statement on taxes, expenses, and the CAO salary.

We certainly thank everyone who has attended our meetings, gave us verbal or written commendations, and above all, provided super financial support to allow us to publicize the information we have in our efforts to keep taxpayers informed.

 Elections  First we certainly thank our past executive and board members for their dedicated efforts as they now step down:  Helge Nome as Vice President, Sharon Rubeling as Treasurer, and Jack Leslie as Director.

We welcome, and thank, the following their interest by allowing their name to stand for office:
(new members are highlighted)
President--- Marianne Cole
Vice President--- Dan Warkentin
Secretary--- Susan Durand
Treasurer---Pat Butler
Board Members--- Ken Qually, Jim Foesier, Trish Bingham, Al Gaetz, and Larry Titford.
We look forward to continuing our efforts to keep county residents informed on county issues and work on their behalf.

Presentation by MLA Jason Nixon Our MLA, Jason Nixon, gave an excellent presentation on various provincial and local issues of importance to us.  These included: the Carbon Tax, Bill 6, the NDP proposal to Cap the Oil Sands, linear taxation pooling, the helipad-water tower fiasco in Rocky, and the need for a new hospital in Rocky.  He did a great job of providing information and addressing concerns.  With regards to the Carbon Tax he mentioned that he will have copies of the petition against the Carbon Tax in his office LIKELY NEXT WEEK. PLEASE COME IN TO SIGN IT.  His Rocky office is located on the east side of Main Street south of Henrys Western Wear or across from Sims Insurance.  We thank Mr. Nixon for attending our meeting and all his efforts to represent us in the Legislature.

We invite all county residents to attend our meetings held the second Thursday of the month at 7:00PM at the Leslieville Elks Hall.