MULGRAVE – In a year when there isn’t much good news, the Town of Mulgrave has delivered a bright spot to residents; for the second year in a row, tax rates will go unchanged at $1.23/$100 of assessment for residential customers, and $4.52/$100 of assessment for commercial properties.
At council’s regular monthly meeting on May 3, conducted over Zoom, Mulgrave CAO David Gray tabled a draft operating budget for the fiscal year 2021-2022, which maintains the tax rate and reports a sizable reserve.
Mayor Ron Chisholm told The Journal that they could not confirm the amount of the operating reserve, until the budget was finalized, which the town expects to happen within the next two weeks.
The draft budget does include one small increase in fees paid by the public; the waste disposal levy will change from $104 to $125 a year per residential unit.
The budget will be brought to council for a vote at the next meeting on Monday, May 17.
In other business, it was noted that the Volunteer of the Year award and associated events will be postponed until a later date due to the current increase in COVID-19 cases in the province and the resulting provincial Public Health orders. Due to the same circumstance, the Town Office is closed to the public and all programming and meetings scheduled to be held in the Mulgrave Memorial Centre have been cancelled or postponed.
Chisholm was pleased to inform council that a volunteer has been found to represent the Town of Mulgrave on the Nova Scotia Housing Authority board, a seat that has been vacant since last December. Jane Greencorn, whom Chisholm described as a concerned member of the community, has stepped up to take on the role.
In discussions this spring, council proposed adopting biweekly regular council meetings instead of maintaining the current schedule of one regular council and one committee of the whole meeting per month. In reviewing the proposal with the Department of Municipal Affairs, it was determined that this new schedule was within the letter of the law and will be the schedule the Town of Mulgrave follows moving forward.
