By Ally Dunham

With the 2012 budget passed for Kenora District Services Board (KDSB), it was time to move forward with the election of a new chair, as well as finalizing the dollars that each municipality would be responsible for to cover the budget.

The services organization previously elected Phil Vinet, Mayor of Red Lake, as their chair, and at the January 12 board meeting, Vinet was acclaimed for his second term.

KDSB staff presented the distribution of the 2012 budget to the board, and Dryden will see the responsibility of shelling out 11.0717 per cent, totaling $1,478,461.

“The assessment, regionally, has gone up approximately 3.8 per cent, but that’s a regional increase. Municipality to municipality, that number is different. It is a reality that municipalities with a high volume of lakefront property, the assessment has gone up approximately double what the average is,” said Dan McNeill, Chief Administrative Officer of KDSB.

Ear Falls will see 1.0248 per cent of the responsibility, and a total of $136,845, Ignace with 1.1784 per cent and a total of $157.363, Kenora with 21.2812 per cent and a total of $2,841,789, Machin with 2.2857 per cent and a total of $305,215, Pickle Lake with 0.3962 per cent and a total of $52,906, Red Lake with 5.6769 per cent and a total of $758,059, Sioux Lookout with 6.8610 per cent and a total of $916,186, and Sioux Narrows/Nestor Falls with 5.5512 per cent and a total of $741,285.

The biggest chunk of the responsibility will fall on the shoulders of the unincorporated areas, at 44.6729 per cent, and a total distribution of $7,645,829.

“That number, as you know is almost 45 per cent of our total assessment, but the actual volume of property and where those properties are, continues to be essentially a tough job for MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) to do, but it’s a large component of our assessment,” said McNeill.

The city of Dryden has seen an increase of 1.56 per cent over the 2011 levy.