This meeting will be to discuss area reating and the possible impact to our municipal budget for 2010 and your property taxes.

Area rating is a tool council uses to ensure residents who do not receive a service, do not pay for the service through property taxes. A perfect example of this are volunteer firefighters. If your area has a volunteer fire service, you would have a lesser charge on your property taxes than someone who has a full-time fire service. Other examples include transit, sewer and water or street lights. If you don’t have these services in your area, you shouldn’t be paying for them on your property taxes.

Every year, during budget, area rating becomes a big issue and 2010 will be no different. However, area rating has always been implemented by former municipal boundaries and not necessarily by the level of service received. As a result, staff are looking at creating an urban rate and a rural rate.

Staff will be on hand at this meeting to give an overview of what they are looking at in terms of possible changes to the way we determine area rating.

Another item I would like to have on the agenda is community council. As your councillor, I have the ability to create this council at this time or wait. Hopefully we can discuss how residents see community councils being created in Ward 11, which includes lower Stoney Creek and Winona, from Fruitland Road east to the Grimsby border, from Lake Ontario south to the escarpment and all of rural upper Stoney Creek from First Road East to the Niagara border and south to Highway 20/Glanbrook. All of Glanbrook from the West Lincoln border west to the border of Ancaster and south to the borders of Haldimand County and Brant County are also in Ward 11, which is home to Fruitland, Winona, Tapleytown, Vinemount, Stoney Creek, Elfrida, Hannon, Woodburn, Binbrook, Blackheath and Mount Hope.

We have a very large ward and looking at how best to serve it with a community council is something I would enjoy speaking with the residents about.

Please mark Nov. 30, 7 p. m. to 9 p. m. on your calendar.

On another note, starting Dec. 1, I will have a food drop-off box at the Stoney Creek municipal office and it would be much appreciated if residents could drop off non-perishable food items. Our Stoney Creek Food Bank depends heavily on the community for donations during the Christmas season and I hope we can all give a few items.