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Last Updated: Feb 1, 2021 11:31 AM
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Grey County is looking at a tax rate increase of 2.11 per cent.
On Friday, County Committee of the Whole supported the draft 2021 budget. It comes back to Council for official approval February 11th.
The County says in a release, the total operating and capital budget works out to $171.2 million.
The 2.11 per cent tax rate increase would work out to an average increase per single-detached household of $24.93.
Of note, in the budget is a $1.11 million investment to create an affordable housing fund on the recommendation of the Affordable Housing Task Force. The amount is equal to $500,000, plus the equivalent of 1 per cent levy. The task force recommended including 1 per cent in the budget each year to continue growing the fund which will support land purchases and affordable housing builds. Council chose to pay the 1per cent in 2021 from one-time reserves.
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Grey County is increasing to $4 million the amount of a short-term loan to help Owen Sound Housing Company complete its latest affordable housing project after construction costs for the 60-unit build in Owen Sound came in higher than anticipated.
County council agreed during Thursday’s committee of the whole meeting to change the loan amount and term from $3.25 million and one year to $4 million and a maximum of two years.
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“The project did come in over what they had estimated. Their consultant thought it would come in around $11 million for the build and it came in at $12,543,000. So they are asking that the short-term loan be increased,” housing director Anne Marie Shaw told council.
Last Updated: Dec 24, 2020 1:48 PM
One of the big Owen Sound milestones of 2020 the completion of the 10th Street Bridge replacement project. (City of Owen Sound Twitter photo)
Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy says despite pandemic shutdowns in 2020, quite a bit still happened in the city.
Looking back at the year, Boddy says, “Business did continue, the planning department, engineering department, with site plans and things coming in didn’t really slow down. People kept working, engineers kept working so a lot of that kept going.”
Boddy says construction value in the city was about $65 million, compared to last year’s roughly $42 million. He says the last time it was this high was 2010.