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Education taxes to go up 6.9 per cent.... Error foundin milrate calculation By MICHAEL KNELL Whitby Free Press Senior town officials wore red, emarassed faces last week after a mistake was found in the calculations used to determine the 1984 mil rates. Treasurer AI Claringbold said late Friday afternoon that the mistake was discovered when he reviewed the worksheets used to make the calculations after reading last week's story in the Whitby Free Press. The treasurer said that instead of subtrac- ting a particular item in the calculation it was inadvertently added. In a memo to Mayor Bob Attersley, Claringbold said: "I regret to inform you that I have found an 14,No. 18 error in our calculation of the mill rate for public school elemen- tary purposes. "Instead of reducing the requisition of the board of education by the estimated paymen- ts-in-lieu for provincial properties and gross receipts for Bell Canada, this estimate was inadvertently ad- ded to the requisition." The error resulted in Whitby Town Council passing a bylaw which raised taxes substan- tially more than was called for in the Durham Board of Education's 1984 budget document. The recalculated mill rate brings the average property tax bill in the Town of Whitby in line with the amount called for in the board's budget. "The overall increase in taxation to Whitby taxpayers for public school education pur- poses will be 6.9 per cent," Claringbold's memo read. "The elimination of an un- derlevy from the 1982 fiscal year accounts for the difference between the estimated tax in- crease of approximately 6.8 per cent as estimated by the board." Wednesday, May 2, 1984 28 w Free Press Staff Photo "The Elephant Man" The Wh1tby Theatre Company will present its most ambitious production to date when the cur- tain rises on their version of Bernard Pomerance's "The Elephant Man" tomorrow night. According to director Terrill Stewart, this is the true story of John Merrick who was commonly known in Victorian London as "The Elephant Man." The affliction from which he suffered turned him from a man into something grotesque, something so horrible that he spent a good part of his early life as a sideshow freak until he met Sir Frederick Treves, a physician who admitted him to the London Hospital and cared for him for the rest of his life. Perhaps Merrick's best known accomplishment was a model of London's St. Philip's Church. In the photograph above Mrs. Kendal (played by Judith Edmundson) and Sir Frederick (at right, played by Drummond White) view the model as build by Merrick (seated in centre, portrayed by Graham Gauthier). Stewart said that Gauthier will not be made up to look like Merrick, making the role all that much harder to play. However, the director feels that if Gauthier was to recreate Merrick as he actually was it would take away from the play. "The theme of the play is the beauty that's in ugliness and the ugliness that's in beauty," Stewart says. "The Elephant Man" will be presented in the theatre of the Whitby Theatre Company on May 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12 beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at Middleton's Book Store in downtown Whitby and cost $5 for Thursday night and $6 for Friday and Saturday nights. Claringbold confir- med his memo during an interview with the Free Press Friday af- ternoon saying: "The increase will be 6.9 per cent or about a $40 per household increase on the average home assessed at $5,000." In his original report, the education increase was projected to be $58.50 for the average home. "It's unfortunate," the treasurer said, "We're very em- barassed by it." Claringbold said that the tax bills, based on the corrected mill rates, will be sent out in about a week's time. Mayor Bob Attersley said that at the next meeting of Whitby Town Council the bylaw im- plementing the tax in- crease will be repealed and another, again with the correct figures, will be enacted in its place. The revised calculations show that taxes on a home assessed at $5,000 will be $1,227.50 for 1984, a five per cent inèrease over last year's $1,169.50. 0f this, the Durham Board of Education received $623, $40 more than last year's $583..¢ The Town of Whitby's share of the total is $389 (including the special levies for garbage collection and the Whit- by Transit Service), which is 1.9 per cent higher than last year's $381.50. The Region of Durham's requisition is $10.50 greater than last year. They are asking for $215.50 from the average Whitby tax- payer. Despite the downward shift in education taxes because of the error Claringbold discovered, the Durham Board of Education's increase is still twice that of both the town and the region combined. Claringbold said that if the error had not been discovered the town would have over- charged the taxpayers to the tune of $300,000. He quickly pointed out, howéver, that this money would have been returned to the taxpayer in 1985 in the form of tax relief. This has turned out to be a most embarassing situation. EDITOR'S NOTE: Even though the mistake was not our's, we, too are a bit em- barassed about some of the things we said in last week's editorial. On page 4 of today's edition we would like to make some additional comments in light of this new, and correct, information. However, the mistake that has been made has not really changed our perceptions of the board of education's fiscal -record, policy or responsibility. Residents say they'll go to the OMB to fight Kurz expansion Angry Myrtle Station residents say they are prepared to take the proposed reconstruction and expansion of the Kurz Foods meat processing plant to teh Ontario Municipal Board. The residents' op- position has two thrusts: firstly, Karl Kurz's past record and, secondly, the impact the plant will have on their homes. Doug Taylor, a spokesman for the residents, said that af- ter Kurz first won ap- proval for his plant 13 years ago he has expan- ded his property on several occasions without any kind of ap- proval. In a written statement, Taylor said: "Without any approval from this council or any governing body, the existing chicken house was renovated to suit the processing business. "This is all history," he added, "but the point is Kurz Foods out grew the block building in a short period of time ex- panded to the metal building and from the -size of. the. proposed, structure must have been very close to over crowding both existing buildings." Taylor fears that should council allow Kurz to rebuilt, then future proposals for fur- ther expansion will be difficult to deny. The original Kurz building was destroyed in an $800,000 fire late last January. "If this council allows the rezoning and con- struction of the building how can this or any future council deny Kurz Foods the right to expand again at a later date?" Taylor asked. "It is almost like an open contract to do as he wishes." He also told Whitby Town Council's ad- ministrative committee at a special meeting held Monday night, that most of the people currently living in Myr- tle Station moved there to be in a rural setting. "We do not want to deny Mr. Kurz the right to make a living," Taylor said, "but at the same time we do not want him to deny us the CONT'D ON PG. 3