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

th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, D ec em be r 19 ,2 01 9 | 14 Gary Carr Regional Chair On behalf of Halton Regional Council, I would like to wish everyone a safe, healthy and happy holiday season! Essential Regional services will remain available over the holidays. Some public facilities will be closed from 4:30 p.m. on Monday, December 23 until 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 2. For assistance, please visit halton.ca, use our OneHalton app or call 311. Thank you for keeping our community a great place to live, work, raise a family and retire--enjoy your celebrations with family and friends! HaltonHills ChristmasDay andNewYear'sDay Householdwaste collectionnotice Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday December 22 23 24 Christmas Day 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 NewYear's Day January 1 2 3 4 Waste collection calendar Reminder: The 2020-2021HaltonRegionGuideandWasteCollectionCalendarwill be delivered bymail at the end of January 2020. Stay up to date on your curbside collection information. Visit halton.ca/waste or download the OneHalton app to: • view your waste collection schedule online; • sign up for weekly collection reminders by email, Twitter or phone; • use the PutWaste in its Place sorting tool; • access HaltonWaste Management Site information; or • print a one-page collection calendar. 1 21 91 9 Please note collection day changes: HaltonWasteManagement Site Please place yourwaste at the curb by 7 a.m. on your scheduled holiday collection day. Regular operatinghours Monday to Saturday I 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 5400 Regional Road 25,Milton ClosedWednesday,December 25, 2019 andWednesday, January 1, 2020 Areas A, B & C Collection moves Garbage tag exemption AreasAandB:Your first garbage collection day after Christmas Day (December 25) does not require garbage tags. The six garbage bag/can limit still applies. Christmas tree collection AreasAandB: Place Christmas trees at the curb for collection onWednesday, January 8 and 15. There is no tree collection for Areas C andD. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Meetings at Halton Region, 1151 Bronte Rd., Oakville, L6M 3L1 Visit halton.ca for full schedule. Jan 15 9:30 a.m. Regional Council Please contact us, as soon as possible, if you have any accessibility needs at Halton Region events or meetings. Areas A, B & C Collection moves Area D Collection moves Area D Collection moves Local residents will be paying a bit more on the regional por- tion of their tax bill next year. Halton council approved its 2020 budget and business plan during its Dec. 11 session, with a combined tax increase of two per cent for police and regional ser- vices. Here are five things you need to know about what this increase means for your pocketbook and the municipal services provided by Halton: 1. The two per cent tax in- crease translates into an addi- tional $6 per $100,000 of the as- sessed value of your home. For example, if your home is worth $500,000, you will be paying $30 more next year in regional taxes. This money goes toward the tax- supported budgets of almost $277 million for regional services and $162 million for police services. 2. Halton also sets the rates for water and sewer services. On this front, local residents can ex- pect to pay an additional 3.3 per cent next year. For a typical home that uses 250 cubic metres of water per year, this will result in an additional $33 for both wa- ter and sewer charges. 3. Among the key drivers in the tax-supported portion of the Halton budget are: a $1-million increase in paramedic services to maintain service levels and ad- dress call volume pressures; an additional $825,000 to address the rising cost of keeping local roads in a state of good repair; and $1.3 million more for services for se- niors, which are facing inflation- ary cost increases without equiv- alent increases in provincial sub- sidy. 4. On the water and sewer budget side, the main items driv- ing the rate increase are: a $7.3- million increase to keep water and wastewater infrastructure in a state of good repair; an allo- cation of almost $20 million for ongoing maintenance of the sys- tem; and $2.3 million in ongoing grant funding for Halton's base- ment flooding prevention pro- gram. 5. Regional taxes are one por- tion of the property tax bill for lo- cal residents. They also pay taxes to the town/city where they re- side, along with education taxes. COUNCIL REGIONAL COUNCIL APPROVES BUDGET, 2% TAX INCREASE MELANIE HENNESSEY mhennessey@metroland.com The 2020 budget approved by regional council translates into a two per cent tax increase. Torstar file photo Georgetown's Halton Police Service division will be closing temporarily. Beginning on Dec. 16, 11 Divi- sion (217 Guelph St.) was closed to the public for renovations. The station will remain opera- tional to uniform officers during the renovation and is expected to reopen to the public on Jan. 2, 2020. During the renovation, the public is encouraged to contact police via telephone at 905-825- 4747 or attend 12 Division located at 490 Childs Dr. in Milton. NEWS HALTON HILLS POLICE STATION CLOSING TEMPORARILY BRYAN MYERS bmyers@metroland.com