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

V' 1;ý' (véï TOwn wh ..... . . . . . Vol. 11, No* 16 Wednesday, April 22, 1981 28 Pages Free Press Staff Photo Up, up and away!f Susanne Kollaard, 13, competed in the recent Durham Region Elementary Athletic Association gymnastios competition held at Whitby Senior Public School. Kollaard, a grade 7 student at WSP, was one of the many competitors representing 80 schools. Sandra Turpin placed first overail capturing al three of her events, the floor, vault and beam sec- The kindergarten to Grade 4 level junior com- pulsory floor went to Liz Dodge while the Grade 8 section was won by Melanie Verriett. Average household faces $22.50 increase Regional taxes up 14.9% lThe Region of Iurham will increase its property tax on Town of Whitby homeowners by an average of 14.9 per cent in 1981. This represents a $2230 increase over 1981, Last ya.a property owner whose house wa-s assessed ai $4.736 paid $130,65 tu the region. This caýr that amount will be $17:3. 1:5 The figures would have been higher had not the On- tario Minîs try of in- tergovernimental Affairs given the region an ad- ditional $225,000 'in appor- tionment grant.s. Without this grant, region property taxes in Whitbv would have climbed by 17 per cent, t)urharn Regîonal ('ounicil sought the additional grant [rom the province after it was discovered that the police department needed bo increase its budget by somne $2 million in 1981. The department's in- crease was well above the region's guidelines of 17 per cent. Regional finance staff in- dicated that the grant reduced the average Whitby regional tax bill by $5, I n a Ici 1er to regi ona I council, the ministry said that the grant was offered to help offset *unusuàl and severe apportionnient shîf- Isý These apportionment shif- ts are determined by' the provincial equilization fac- tors that calculate the per- centage of the regional tax levv each of the eight mem- ber municipalities will pay, Prior t0 the additimal grant being given. six of the eight municipalities were looking ai regional tax in- creases of more than 13 per cent. Whitby, Pickering, Brock. .Scug<>g. and Uxbridge were ail facing increases of ber ween 17.1 and 18.7 per cent. Only Oshawa and Ajax were flot as hard hit. suf- fering 12.9 and 11.7 per cent increases respect ivelv,ý The grant reduced ail but (shawa and Ajax's in- creases to 14.9 per cent. Having accepted the $225,000 grant, Durham Regional Council struck their 1981 operating budget of $34,7 million, an 8.7 per cent spending increase over 148()> The Durham Regional Police Force has the largesi chunk of the operating budget spending $16.7 millionl in 1981.