The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Town reduces fees in an effort to get more residents to license dogs CYNTHIA GAMBLE Staff Writer The Town of Halton Hills has changed its dog licensing program by reducing its fees to encourage residents to buy licences for their dogs. "That (the price) seems to be the number one complaint from the residents about our dog licensing fees," said Debbie Edmonds, manager of licensing and legislative services, who says there are about 5,500 licensed dogs in town. "They don't seem to be too happy with it currently-- they claim it is out of whack with other areas." The Town has replaced lifetime licences with an extended two-year and three-year licence to coincide with the new two and three-year rabies vaccinations. This is to reduce staff time in tracking down recalcitrant owners who do not submit the vaccinations, said Edmonds. However, the Town will honour the lifetime dog licences already held by owners since 2000-- if they have maintained the vaccination submissions and continue to maintain it. She said the rabies vaccinations are important as the town is a high-risk area for rabies. The annual fee will drop to $25 from $41 and the extended licence fee is $20 per year from $32. The Town currently has 10 dogs listed as "Dangerous" or "Potentially Dangerous" and these licences will go up $100 and $75 respectively. No increases are planned for the next term of council (four years). The fees will put the Town more in line with other municipalities. Future initiatives include an online dog application and licence renewal system. The dog licensing program, Edmonds said, does not pay for itself, with revenues declining every year. In 2005, the Town earned only $63,000 from its dog licences, but will pay $112,000 to the Upper Credit Humane Society for animal control this year. It is hoped this new system will eventually, with the rising dog population, become revenue-neutral, with revenues from the extended licences totalling about $130,000. (Cynthia Gamble can be reached at cgamble@independentfreepress.com) Park maintenance Paul Tompkins of North Halton Golf Course was one of the crew working at the Old Seed House Gardens recently, installing an irrigation system to better maintain the park next year. Photo by Ted Brown