Over 70 West Kent residents crowded into the Knights of Columbus
Hall in Tilbury last night to discuss the municipality’s crumbling bridges.
Councillor Bryon Fluker wants to raise the agricultural tax rate from 22% to 25%, with all of the revenue earmarked solely for repairing bridges on the divestment list.
Fluker expects the hike to put aside close to $1.2 million per year.
“Over a 5-10 year period we should be able to make some pretty good inroads on the divestment list of bridges and those are the ones that if they are closed or due to be closed I’d like to see the money quickly go towards.”
However some at the meeting, including OFA president Keith Currie, prefer the idea of an overall one per cent tax increase to offset infrastructure costs.
“There’s a willing of the constituents to do that, I don’t know that it’s that difficult for a council to say okay we can create a separate fund for it to go towards rural infrastructure because that’s what our constituents want.”
Fluker’s proposal will be up for debate by council at its next meeting on December 5th.