After constructing a shelter facility at Lions Park in 2019, the Martensville and District Lions Club is looking to upgrade the park’s playground equipment this year to make it fully accessible for physically-challenged children.
Financing for the shelter built in 2019 was provided by the City of Martensville in the form of a loan, which was to be paid back by the club over a period of five years. The club completed the project and paid the loan back within two years.
Martensville City Council gave approval at its meeting on Tuesday, April 19 for a new loan agreement with the club in the amount of $25,000, which will be paid back in full by the club within five years. The funds will be used by the club to purchase barrier-free equipment for the Lions Park playground, located on 6th Avenue South in Martensville.
The Martensville and District Lions Club raises funds through grant submissions as well as its annual Valley Street Stock event in late summer. The funds raised through these activities will be used to pay back the loan from the city.
Once the barrier-free playground equipment is installed this summer, the club intends to raise additional funds to install barrier-free rubber surfacing at the playground. That project is slated to take place in 2023.
TAX ENFORCEMENT
Also at its April 19 meeting, Martensville City Council approved a list of 75 properties that are more than $1,000 in arrears on property taxes to the municipality. The properties on the list will have a tax lien registered against them by the city unless the taxes are fully paid before July 31, 2022.
The combined value of taxes owing on all 75 properties amounts to about $251,000.
Martensville Corporate Services Director Leah Bloomquist told the April 19 council meeting that there are fewer properties in this stage of the tax enforcement process than there were last year.
“In 2021, we had 241 properties on the list, with a combined tax arrears totalling $1.26 million,” said Bloomquist.
If no payments on the tax arrears are made, the properties will be moved to the next phase in the enforcement process, in which the city will move to acquire title to the property. The city will provide the landowner with six months notice, and if no agreement is reached to pay the debt by the landowner, the city will take the case to the provincial Mediation Board. It is a process which takes many months.
There are currently 63 properties in that stage of the process. The total amount of arrears owing on those properties is $956,000. This is up from last year, when there were only eight properties, which together owed a combined total of $95,000.