Dear Editor
I have often wondered why we pay taxes. I have owned a house in North Battleford for 12 years. Over the last several years changes have happened to our city that I just don't understand.
We have moved to garbage bins in the alleys instead of garbage pick up. This is all good and works for the most part, but at the same time it makes no sense. We are allowed to put only certain things in the bin, where as before we could put anything in the alley by our fence and it was picked up and hauled away, no questions asked. Now we pay for these bins and also have to load up our trucks drive to the dump and pay even more money to unload it.
So why do I pay taxes for garbage removal when I have to do it myself and pay once again?
Also, I understand that we have priority roads for snow removal that need to be cleaned first, and that residential streets used to ge,t done when they had time. I don't know how many of you out there know this, but now according to City Manager Jim Toye, the City has new rules regarding residential snow removal. The city will not clean the snow on residential streets until there are ruts a minimum of six inches deep in the road before they will consider cleaning it.
Why do I pay taxes for snow removal when they won't even do it?
I tend to see a lot of city employees just driving around doing nothing, so maybe instead of them driving around, the City should split up the crews. One crew could start early in the morning to remove snow on the priority roads and a second crew could come in later and remove the snow on the residential streets that are booked to have their streets cleaned that day.
I have also noticed the bylaw officers are picking and choosing who they give parking tickets to. A few weeks ago I noticed a pink letter from the city on a pickup truck. I stopped to check it out and it was a warning for parking illegally. And the car right behind the truck had a regular parking ticket I'm sure most of us has seen. Then a few days later on another street I found the same pink slip on a car and a car parked two down had a regular ticket.
I don't think its right for them to pick an choose. Either everyone one street gets a ticket or no ticket regardless of who you are, where you work or for any reason.
I hope I have made some people aware of what we really thought our taxes were going and they are actually not. I really hope the City gets it together.
Branden Morris
North Battleford
