The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
An entertaining night at the R.H. Channing Auditorium has helped convince a councillor that the city's controversial quest for new revenue is worth it. Coun. Tim Babcock spoke of his newfound certainty at last week's council meeting, just days after he attended a local production of the musical Chicago. 'I've really been struggling lately with the direction that we're going and are we doing the right thing,' he told the public, 'trying to answer for myself, is all of this worth it? We've started so many fires and we've created a lot of headaches for ourselves.' That changed when Coun. Babcock attended Chicago at the municipally-owned Community Hall, which now requires costly roof repairs. He said he enjoyed the show, the work of the Flin Flon Community Choir, even as his thoughts turned to how much it will cost the city to fix the building. Coun. Babcock said the experience 'really spoke to me that, yeah, what we're doing is definitely worth it.' 'We need to fight for what we have and if we don't, why are we here? What are we going to accomplish?' he said, sitting as mayor in George Fontaine's absence. 'And it really reiterated to me that we need to keep doing what we're doing, keep moving forward and find any way that we can to make sure that we don't lose what we have.' See 'Earned' on pg. Continued from pg. Coun. Colleen McKee voiced her agreement with Coun. Babcock, who then earned some applause among council. Among the metaphorical 'fires' council has started is its quest to glean direct funding from residents of the cottage subdivisions outside city limits. There is also council's proposed protective services fee, which would have the effect of upping what low-end homes and businesses pay in taxes. Council has also indicated a willingness to approach non-residents other than cottagers who regularly utilize Flin Flon's public facilities. All of these plans have met some degree of public opposition, and in the case of the services fee, disagreement from within council itself in the form of Coun. Skip Martin. But council argues the fiscal challenges are too great to maintain the status quo, with rec facilities such as the Community Hall mentioned as potential targets for funding cuts unless more revenue comes in. Last month, Mayor Fontaine informed area cottagers that the city is no longer willing to subsidize fire protection for their properties. The city will revoke cottage fire protection July 1 unless a funding agreement between the city and the cottagers is in place or reasonably within reach by that date.
