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wednesday evening january 7th 1953 putt text of ruling of judge robinson in county assessment appeal in the county court of thk county of iialton dj tedb matter of an appeal by the town of oakvlqe and by the town of burlington against ttal- ton county qqualujation bylaw 1952 school teacher here many years ago a lady who taught in george town public school many years ago miss isabel lyla moklnlay was buried in greenwood cemetery on saturday mckiniutn accountant at dresden bank members of the bank of com merce staff here for over six years mr and mrs spence mckinnon will be moving to dresden soon w mr mckinnoi assistant account- oakville burlington win township assessment appeal forty percent and sometimes more bmvu in his assessment for the following miss mcklnlay died at her home ant al thft droft has received year i think if all assessors fn the 1574 bathurst street toronto on dromot to accountant at the county were to adopt this prac- january 1st after a lengthy illness direst ibranch arid expects to tice it would be a very wise and a daughter of mr and mrs an- ieave about mddlo janu- proper thing for them to do gus mckinlay who lived in town ary for his new uositlon it is not the assessment on garden land in the early part of the century she ye known replay hlm jn burlington averag judgment nine hi which the appeals against the said by- behalf of the towns of burlington and oakville were duly filed with the clerk of the county of halton within the required time upon receipt of the notices of appeal from the county clerk as required by statute i notified all the municipalities in the county to attend before me at the court house on the 14th day of july 1952 for the purpose of deciding upon the procedure to be adopted in disposing of the appeal and fix ing the order in which the various municipalities should present their evidence the town- of burling- v4on and oakville aa appellants were asked to proceed first and each municipality in the county was ordered to gi each other municipality a copy of all the assessments on properties in its municipality for the years 1949 1950 and 1951 in cases where sales had taken place in these years it was further decided that each municipality should be allowed two expert witnesses apart from the assessors and that counsel for each municipality should be permitted to cross examine any or all wit at the next sitting it was stated by counsel for each of the fi e southern municipalities namely burlington oakville nelson tra falgar bronte that they did not intend to attack the assess ments in acton georgetown mil ton esquesing and nassagaweya it largely then occurred to me that the hear ing of the appeal could be con slderably shortened and i made the suggestion which was agreed upon by all the municipalities in the county that the assessments of each of the five northern muni cipalities should remain as stated in the by law the counsel for these last mentioned municipalities were satisfied with this arrange ment and they then withdrew from the appeal the county assessor then gave evidence and explained the pro cedure adopted by him in advising and instructing the various local assessors in regard to their duties j he stated that he had explained to them the assessment manual depth tables nd the table for lo cation obsalceence ind aked jhat they ill follow these in mak ing their assessments he give the detail of percentages regarding lo cation obsolescence which he in structcd the assessor to adopt in all municipalities except burling ton and oakville which were lo receive no obso escence discount on their buildings the discounts allowed were blanket discounts for l dred dollars per acre very much higher than similar land in either nelson or trafalgar and also higher than the garden land in oakville the land assessments on the lake shore highw ay at the east end of burlington but within the town limits are approximately n kinlay thirtyone dohars per foot and compared with the assessments on the same highway and the lake they are much higher in burling ton than in nelson i shall discuss the lake front assessments in nel son in more detail when i deal with nelson s case the industrial values and assess ments in burlington seem to me to be properly and fairly 7 and no attack was made upon them similar assessments in nel son arc considerably lower but i hall deal witr these in detail alae in considering nelson s case with regard to the commercial assessments on brant and water streets in burlington which com prise the whole business section of the town i feel that they are fairly and equitably assessed and no attack was mde upon them by either of tne townships mr coombs the expert called by the townships stated that he con mdcred in tow ns like burlington and orfkvihe that the commercial properties should be assessed at four times the highest residential properties mr purnell one of the experts called by the towns dis agreed wllh mr coombe in this regard his experience has been n the city of hamilton i- taught in georgetown for three j years after attending model school then after graduating from normal school she taught at omagh be fore joining the staff of the char les g frascr school in the city she retired several years ago she is survived by two sisters and two brothers miss edna mc murray and alex toron to and jessie mrs c j devine bea virion a brother frank was killed in the first war the minister of hilicrest church wf christ of which she was a mem ber conducted the funeral service in toronto on saturday there was a short service at the grave side here before interment six nephews were pallbearers the weather here ware with the first weeks summary or 1953 and not much -winter- weather to report yet in checking the figures for the month of december it shows both maximum and minimum averages for the month are 35 and g de v a native of bluevale near wing- bam he was with the bank at waterloo before his transfer to georgetown where he met and married his wife the formei elea nor milliere they have been a popular young couple in town and will be missed by a large circle of friends mr mckinnon is secretary of the lions club secretary treasurer of the baseball club and although not holding an official office in the hockey club he has been one of ihe mainstays of that organization and a aithfuj supporter of hockey grees both being 5 degrees above the december normal average the few dibbles of snow during decern ber only totalled six inches for the whole month which is 8 inches below normal hope january doesn t try to make up for lost time the towns of oakv a lington have won their appeal to have their share c the halfan county tax levy reduced in 1s53 in a written judgment judgew n robiiuoncut the assessraenfrln both towns by mokesttuui lsdofloo for county purposes aihdjacreased the assessment in nelson and traf algar townships by almost the same three weilknown people in guelph city hospitals three well known georgetown residents have started the new year in hospital early new yeirs morning miss annie ryan retired principal of georgetown public school suffered a slight stroke at her home she is convalescing well in st joseph s hospital guelph while putting nwiv christ mis decorations mrs j a mcclure maple aenue had a fall and it present in guelph general ho pital where she will be hospitalized for a few weeks with a broken pelils yesterday garageman fred sin dair who suffered a sudden sicxr vpcll oi saturday went to the lockwood clinic in toronto for treatment aecoroing to the section of the county in which the properties were located these discounts frotwlan actual assessment on all build iswi ings in the county varied from five percent in some localities to fiftyfive percent in others tho discounts were applied on every building in tlie county apart from burlington and oakville i shall deal with these percentages of blanket obsolescence discount in greater detail later as they have a tremendous effect on the total assessment of the county in its relationship to the local assess ment in each municipality i will now set forth some com and he was on the assessment apxrfl board there for some time kt slated that he tottswered the best commercial properties should be assessfc for eight times the value of the average residcntiil property i feci that i must accept the evidence of mr coombe in this regard he was for years fii the depirtment of municipal af fairs of the provincial govern men ind is resided is ne of the mir oultanjing experts in both urbnn and rural properties in the province mr purnell experience h is been lirgely in the city of hamilton where commercial prop erties mifht be eight limes higher than residential assessments or tcn greater uuin that but in my opinion it does not coincide with iel itne i onnal dlues in towi s uih is bui lington and oikvilh there his been a real dimind for commercial properties in both burlington and oakville since the innounrmcnt wis nnde tint tho sludtbuker plnt is looting j ist outside of burlington ind the to d motor com piny jyst outside of oakville outside purchasers be- syl iievirg thjjtraerrnew business tome to these towns as a re suit of new industries are offer musical and sociaj aktpknoon 1ifi il the music students from the ellipses of bruce m hirding ind margiret br id ley hirdmj tnjpjed i musicil and social afternoon on the tuesday between chrislmns and new yeay s di first wis i musinl program pre s nted b a number of the e ud ents which wis followed by re fresh mints minj of the parents it tended also at the conclusion ot the program a bciuliful bou m t of chrjsanthcrnums wis prese io 1 to tin teiohers on behalf of alt the upils by m irgaret eason jpiose t ikin part in the musicil pirt of the iflernoon included thf following cilhanne smith dnid s nith birl rkjaul v l ll celebrate many places new years eve gay moat georgetowners were in a mood for celebration on new year s eve and thei e w ere few who spent a quiet evening at home as usual there was a huge crowd it the ttose room for the firemen s ball which holds the record for endurance a straight six hours of inncinf with the modern aires a capacity crowd was irr the le hill for the annual dance whiih welcomes in another year house jparties abounded in town one of the largest being at the hi me of mr and mrs james cvam whire members of the 5 50 club t st john s church numbering forty had a gay time with dancing ind games some jojjrneyedout of town to tuclph whepv the parties included a affair in the memorial gar i i s to biampton where lee dia i lond nd the c4 ranch boys play cd in the farmers building and to toronto where all the night iots had special entertainment a midnight show at the roxy al so di cw a full quoti of merry mikcrs em batkin date max mln snow dec 29 32 21 v dec 30 30 24 flurries dec 31 23 16 jan i 29 18 jan 2 33 26 flumes jan 3 35 28 flurxies- jan 4 29 11 average 30 14 20 57 s mrs ferguson marks her 91st birthday uc4l 1 ic vobi i aumont biehn mechanical difficulties but herald is published meclnnical difficulties with the linctjpt michn e which sets the bulk of news copy in lhe herald iusid- i mixed up week for the i tspipcr lh i ks to friend c a dills of friith hi aumont pinny norton t iroli biehn 1llc inor stlunk dotijui wrttloa y joclu n iu1i kith hmiox gilh inne ch i man sus in laiihun sh ir in si ers mirunct f isoi ic in pi nrirt lynda kor ick ci mdn milne ind- lambert ll acton tree picss to set the most impoit in the m ighbc urn uhhsh a somewllit 1 tt ion to tli ii which vt were oblc int copy and ik ofnee and ibbrcvnled hid been fvc rcjrel that some ids inci s hid to be left until next wcck j raiders show shipbuilders ing ridiculously high prices for the lh n still are good competition ay abo it miy be only a temporary con dition and until it is proven hat the prices now being offered are likely to continue i do not uiink it is proper o increase the com mejcial assessments at this time if however these prices are be ing maintained i think- it would be poper for thecommerclal lands in both towns tc be increased some what oakville s case the assessor tor oakville stated graham pofter if breaks mean anything in winn ing hockey games comfngwood shipbuilders sure had their share on saturday against the raiders the localsshowed the highly rated collingwood crew that they needed the breaks plus a little help from the home town referee to win tlas one 6 2 and wind up the homerid home series between the two clubs in the first period a fighting georgetown crew hit the ice and which gave wihatsoevcr spericer played he chance n out a lady who celebrated her 90th birthday in georgetown- last year marks another milestone today she is mrs archie ferguson wo is at present living in st cathar ines wilh her daughter mrs john parslow last year the family ga thered in town for a birthday din ne i at i ie home of mr and mrs jtobcrt lane union street mrs ferguson whose maiden mme wis mirj campbell is a life loin resident of swinton pirk twelve miles west of dundalk she is a d i ugh tor of mr and mrs geo impbell who cunc to c imda from scotland she resided for miny yeais on concession 15 proton uhcil he ind her lu binl firmed nd rused their fimily mr fc lus n died in 19 w hi i descendants number 68 ind includ n nc children all living 2a gnndchilriren ind i fereit fr ind children the fin il comprising e iht daughters ind one son jb as follows mrs elizibeth hiw ftn npton mis will christie ciy lo alta mrs john pirslow st catharines mrs hubert duncan toronto mrs james sturrock f leshcrton mrs jack carson wi mrs robert lane geor getow n gordon ferguson mount forest and mrs gordon mclcod amount ft the assessments of six other municipalities in tne county will re main unchanged it was the first appeal of equalized assessment in ontario and the first appeal of as sessment in halton county after examining 491 pages of ev idence and numerous exhibits judge robinson said tie found that either the burlington and oakville assess ments were too high or the town ships assessment too low most of the discussion during the 10 dty hearing of the appeal last flujrifis october was bsised on the five and 10 per cent blanket obsolescence factoi deducted om tend assess ment t the blanket obsolescence factor was an assessrrent disount applied jo urban and rural lands depend ing n their dinterce from the town limits o either burlington orvoak- ille the assessirmt discoun was not justfied decla d judge rooinson the further aw iv the property jvas from the town lnits the bigger the discount land bought i aseld for indus trial developnun at asqtlitcr date should not imn tdiatelyve given an industrial ass s nent said kidge robinson line u tustrial rate should not pply until me lano is actually in ut fo indus nl puroe it was nlso j ii i i i judgment that r- r ue a fa n is fcriunate enough to sell his farm at a very high price for a purpose other than farming this should not force his neighbour into an extremely high assessment bracket judge robinson recommended that under an equitable system ot assessment ofthe above four muni cipalities oakvilles and burling ton s assessments be maintained at the figuie submitted but tat traf algar total be increased from 10 598 425 to 15 371893 and that nelsons be raised from 8 476347 to 1 1 248 776 the effect of these increases how ever would be to increase the total county ussessment roll from 55 596- sio to 63 050 447 since an overall increase in the county asessment total va5n0t in issue judge robinson ruled that the above fig are should be dis counted for the current year by 18f5i5 this has the effect of miking oikvilles adjusted assess ment 9 134 892 anstead of 10 866- 24 burlington s8388 135 instead of 1059842 and nelsfins 9 456- 440 instead of 8 48 347 in other words oakyllle and bur lington each save nearly one fifth of their piyment to the county while trafalgars share will jump from 19 06 percent of the total to 21 4 percent pnd nelson s will in crease from 15 25 percent to 17 09 percei t parlsons ipthe assessments in the in nis evidence that he had follow- forced the shipbuilders to hustle minutes later standing game and this was proved when the collingwoo fans ap plauded him on numerous occasions late in the second the first brcjk came for the shipbuilders or should we say we wuzjrobbed f- in a scramble around the george town net sandell lying face dow on the ice pushed the puck in with his glove we found but there was no use arguing with a local official walmsley got a genuine goal a few rartous municipalities as shown in the evidence burlington s case it was prcnen from the list of wles in 1949 1950 and 1951 com- bo o ntivr and making a total of over five mil lion dollars that properties sold in 1940 were assessed at 59 1 tot the sale price in 1950 and 1951 at 4739 ot the sale price p va tend j94 wessments of all properties sold 515091 of the saleprice in w the assessments weve 96jjj i the sale price on the average the past three years they were on ed the manual very carefully in making his assessments he allow ed no general obsolescence dis counts but in a few cases gave a slight discount where a building was located next to or very close to a nuisance he assessed all gar den land in oakville at five hun dred dollars per acre which in my view is a fair assessment so long as the land is used purely for gar den purposes in comparison with burlington it- wouldseem tefit bur- crtnti a crs pou 100 of the sale price t jeactarttie municipalities ob- sing a list ot sales from the mtnty registry office at the end lington a garden land too high as compared with oak ville unless it wrfjl produce cer tain fruits or vegetables which the oakville garden land will not pro duce oalltrilles assessment of gar oen landf like that of burlington is milch higher than the feardpn- land assessments in either of the i eachnonth the assessor for townships of inelson or trafalgar vungton stated in bis evidence this will be discussed further st e checks fr monthly sales when i consider the eases of nel- ia wfcere h sees a sale of prop- son and trafalgar v v vo whteh the assessment u the oakville assessorvstated that m than fortjpewmt of the sale he was instructed by tgounty adjusts u up to at least qomunubd on pac right from tho opening whistle raiders opened the scoring at 6 23 when shewehuk found the target on a pass from ferri and dixon that goal set the shipbuilders back en their heels as the raiders bump ed checked and skated leading in the roughhouse section were williams and inglis who earned a lot of respect from the opposition as they handed out some solid hodychecks cochrane counted for colling wood and chappel and nash added georgetown s second which proved to be georgetown s last lead of the night wheeler evened up the the scoringand sent- the game into a 2ail tie going into the second period nash set u the goal beau- tifully when he tookuie puck over the line and drew the lone defen ceman to him before he passed to chappel who was coasting 4n be hind and went all the way to pull the netmlnder out and slap the pick in the first two counters for co- were both sctatuitd hoti the fast pace showed on both tcaths in the final period colling wotw got two early goals one ot them batted in with a high stick we guess it s legal up in that country they probably get mixed up with lacrosse once in awhile there is one tning collingwood does have and that is crowd sup port about 1500 attended the game nine staunch supporters fr georgetown made themse tieard as they cheered a team that played well in all departments next home me will be here on saturday with fergus the opposi tion raiders goal spencer defence williams inglis centre ferri wings dixon shewohuk alternates nash chappel l bradbury m radbury donald orr small aqd kemabead shipbuilders goal westbrooke defence patterson wheeler centre c tryass wings keith f- dance alternates walmsley cochrane green mccutoheon j pence fl fryer swltaar georgetown cdmmuters win another game bruce gummer after a twoweek layoft over the holiday season georgetown com muters started the new year right in the avro hockey league by downing the rovers 3 2 the rovers had the play in the commuters end most of the first period but steamer emmerson held them to one goal early in the second rovers made it 2 0 then near the end oftlie period jim cofeh scored on a nice passing play from bob zeke mccandless in the third period jack hajnjl ton scored with jim cofell assist ing hamilton got the tiebreaker on a penalty shot hamilton and cofelk were best offensively and blake baxter play ed a good game defensively for the commuters 1 comm were without the services of mel jordan j ford cliff worton and dune baxter and manager harvey ohapell was kept busy juggling his lines to win this game and keep the team on top of the league j hi suggest mp meet with farm forums meeting in the schoolhouse on monday luunibers of the stone school farm forum listened to the broadcast on many items swell retail food prices and after the discussion held a sbprt business meeting before ivrfch stewarttown flu spoiis holidays for school kick school opened up after the christmas holidays with our teach er mrs falter sargent in charge several of the children were sick with flu during the holidays we are glad to say that most of them are well again visitors with mr and mrs san- ford new years day were mr and mrs w mitchell miss doxismit- chell mr and mrs ed sanford and bill of limehouse and miss scott of georgetown ruby pennant spent some christ mas holidays with mr end mrs w huffman at leaside the january meeting of esques ing women s institute will be held wednesday evening january 14th the meeting will be in charge of the historical convener roll call to be answered with showing something antique and tell the story of it happy birthday to kenneth hodge who will be 7 years old next wednesday january 14th mrs h p lawson and mrs doug lawson had as their guests during christmas miss hettie lawson and mr david lawson from town mr and mrs ctebert mcdowell and earl hornby mr and mrs robert vickers and larry toronto mr and mrs harry jjawson and linda and paul lawsori acton the forum will attempt to ar range with other forums in the district a meeting to which a mem ber of parliament s1 he invited to