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ia repair speciaust irackdrlwri fcham saturday february 21 1998 vol 14 no 8 weekender bne 40 pages 50 gstincl a metroland publication serving whifchii group town and country realty ltd 6400888 mmm i fo i mail m3m- ps ft- n c r p hi s h9s if h w b hi d 1mb ihbi rshi 1 confusion overnotices joan ransberry staff reporter the switchboard lit up at the whitchurchtstouffville municipal office after local ratepayers received their new assessment rlotices in the past 1 0 days the town was hit with a rash of calls after ontario finance minister ernie eyess department mailed but the notices said town treasurer ed blackburn we had four staff members on our phones and they never stopped he said whats this all about is the most asked question in reference to current value assessment the hew method of updating assess ments were directing all calls to the assessment department said blackburn instead of calling thie local municipal office call 1-800- 2633224 the reassessed value of proper tyjwill now represent the estimate ed market value of the property as of june 30 1996 the last time this was done was 1984 mean while some areas of torontos market values are tied to the 1940s people are confused the confuy sidn has erupted as homeowners across whitchurchstouffville get their first look at how their prop erties have been assessed under the reformed property tax system some are stunned by jumps in their property assessments they wonder will it mean higher taxes and the concerns are valid said blackburn local home and business owners should pay close attention to the assessments he said they should be concerned they should look and see how comparable properties have been assessed and yes they should be very aware of the appeal process an open house linked to the assessments is slated for march 9 c and 11 from noon to 8 pm at the ballaritrae community centre the open house will give prop- erty owners a chance to present new information or correct misun- derstanding regarding the assess ment said mayor wayne emmer- son the package that came in the mail explains it well people should read it reread it and come to the open house in ballantrae i cant stress enough how important this is said emmerson of course people want to know what their 1998 tax rate is said blackburn and people want the answer now the municipal tax rate wont be set by local council until mid- march while york regions budget may not be set until june said blackburn and who knows when the province will deal with school board taxes he added yr cop serves siu with 30m suit kathleen griffin staff reporter the police officer who shot and killed a markham teen in a stolen car during the sum mer of 1996 has filed a 30 million lawsuit against the special investigations unit and the province claiming malicious politicallymoti vated prosecution york regional police detective bob wiche is claiming his rights under the charter were breached by the lengthy siu investigation and the subsequent laying of a manslaughter charge said his lawyer adrian hill the claim was filed in toronto wednesday the siu and its employer the province of ontario acted negligently and abusively not only in the laying of the charge but also because it took six months to investigate the please see page 2