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Town will collect al our garbk The Town of Whitby will provide garbage collection services for the entire municipality (both urban and rural areas) by November 1. Upon the recommen- dation of public works director Dick Kuwa- hara, the town will also go to a four-day collec- tion week schedule. Currently the town uses both its own staff and private contractors to provide garbage collection services. In an effort to make the service more effi- cient, Kuwahara suggested three possible alter'natives: having private contractors pro- vide the service, main- tain the status quo and having a total municipal collection service. In his report Kuwa- hara said that having private contractors pro- vide the service would be the easiest to ad- minister, however, it will produce other pro- blems such as the dispo- sition of town employees working in garbage collection. Continuing the part private, part municipal collection system was also rejected. "The present system is not totally efficient now because of the growth of the town," the director said in his report. "The area collected by the munici- pality has grown and the present service needs to be augmented but it has not grown sufficiently to justify new equipment and manpower." While Kuwahara said that the private contrac- tors do a good job it does matter to the home- owner who collects the garbage. "There are two separ- ate agencies responsible for the service and the citizens do not care who they are but just get a good level of service." In Kuwahara's opi- nion the best alternative is having a totally municipally supplied service. "It is our contention that this is the best route to go," he said adding that the cost will be about the same. "We believe our costs will be equal to or less than the contractor's costs," he said. The director esti- mated that it would cost the town about $55,500 to take over the areas ser- viced by the contractor. The contractor's costs are estimated at $58,500. "These are estimates only," Kuwahara stressed, "and all they point out is that the cost for either would be very similar." However, if the muni- cipality provided for the service then greater control and flexibility would be gained. "Another reason for municipal service is because there would be tighter controls and bet- ter service than can be administered since collection would -totally be under municipal con- trol'," Kuwahara said. "Route changes, pick up times can be done with the minimum of bother and would not require.revision to the contract,"he added. Going to the four- week collection system would allow the public Taxes hiked Property taxes for Town of Whitby pur- poses will increase by 4.5 per cent in 1982 for those homeowners livign in the serviced urban area (south of Rossland Road). . For those people living in Brooklin and the rural areas a 2.6 per cent increase has bee- -levelled by Whitby Town Council. For urban dwellers, this represents a $16 in- crease on a home assessed at $5,900 and for rural horneowners, an $8.50 increase. It should be pointed out that other property tax increases are ex- pected to be levied by the Region of Durham and the public and separate school boards. However,- these in- creases will not be known until these bodies str-ike their reseéctive budgets which will be done over the next few weeks. Urban homeowners will now pay an average of $369 for town pur- poses while rural property owners will pay $334.50. Duringl1982, the Town of Whitby will spend ap- proximately $12.2 million for both current operations and capital projects. The largest portion of ýughout this week and the budget will go to the Celebrity Day. at the public works depart- ment which has been Bam against Oshawa allocated ap- ree Press bas accept- proximately $5 million. ,paper in Ajax. These funds will be 'ree Press Staff Photo used to finance such things as the Whitby -Transit Serviee, gar- bage collection' and dis- ig e posai, street lighting,ý age traffic control, snow removal, sidewalk works department to maintenance and con- provide regular mainte- struction and road nance to the vehicles maintenance and con- used for collection. struction. "right now our Another large expen- regular trucks are out diture area is the Whit- five days a week and are by Fire Department not serviced on a which bas a budget of regular program,' approximately $1.6 Kuwahara said. "When million to maintain fire one breaks down it is protection in the town. brought in and a stand- The town will also by is taken out or else if spend $488,585 in its two vehicles are protection to persons required, a rental unit is and property budget for brought in." such tings as bylaw en- "We cannot eliminate fer ent, protective all of these costs but it inspections and other can be reduced by this services. preventive mainten- The parks and recrea- ance." tion department wil Kuwahara's recomm- . spend about $1.8 million endations were adopted this year to maintain its by council during last r week's budget discuss- ansswelsit ions. However, they willfclte n rgas notcone nt efec un Cuaintenasc aisd acon- tilth diecor ubnistcatioxat $2a anoherreprt hatra milinor lageepen sugestmor chnge. by g Fre prmentoe. This will finance the operation cf the admini- strator's, clerk's and treasurer's depart- ments as well as the new department of special projects. The council itself will cost the Whitby tax- payer $162,150 this year. This will pay the salar- ies of the mayor and the six councillors and their support staff. The department with the smallest budget is the planning depart- ment which will spend approximately $341,565 in 1982. Town expenditures have.incrèased by about 16 per cent over 1981 but the tax increase is only 4.5 per cent at the most. This fortunate situa- tion exists because the town experienced a six per cent growth rate in 1981 which increasëd the town's tax base. There- fore, there are more people paying property taxes which keeps the increases down. This growth also pro- duced a surplus of about $500,000 despite the fact that the estiniated 1981 actual spending figures are higher than the budgetted amount. This surplus was ap- plied to the 1982 budget, thereby bringing down the mill rate increase. . However, not all the money that will be spent this year will come from the tax levy which will provide about $6.5 million in revenue. The town expects to raise about $965,700 from licence and permit fees, rents, fines and fees, investment income and other sources. The provincial government is expected to contribute about $1.1 million through various grant programs that help finance road con- struction and main- tenance, the Whitby Transit Service, recrea- tion and others. However, some pro- posed expenditures were deferred including the construction of a railway crossing on Garden Street (at a cost of $70,000), the establishment of a bus terminal and the pur- chase of sound equip- ment for the Iroquois Park Complex. Another major deferal was that of a bookmobile for the Whitby Public Library for a second yëar. The estimated cost of this was $176,000. However, tbe town did give the library board an operat- ing grant of $525,000. Il