RM of Moosomin amalgamates with Village of Welwyn: Village becomes part of RM May 1
May 1, 2018, 1:43 am
Kevin Weedmark
Today, April 30, 2018, is the last day the Village of Welwyn will exist as a municipality. Tomorrow, the village becomes part of the RM of Moosomin.
The three people who had served on Welwyn town council—Mayor Andre Mailloux and Councillors Percy Callin and Florence Bowey—are done their responsibilities as of today.
The former village of Welwyn becomes Division 7 of the RM of Moosomin, and a byelection will be called to fill the Division 7 council position. The byelection will take place June 27.
The nominations for the byelection will open in May. The notice of call for nominations will be published in the World-Spectator.
The former village will be a special service area within the RM.
“The reason for that is so we can tax Division 7, the former village, differently, because they are provided different services than the rest of the RM,” explains RM of Moosomin administrator Kendra Lawrence. “That allows a different mill rate, different mill rate factors, that kind of thing.”
The Village of Welwyn passed their 2018 budget on April 23.
The three council members decided to increase the base tax on residential properties from $300 to $350 on land and from $300 to $350 on improvements, so instead of $600 the base tax is $700 this year for a residential property with improvements (any building on the property). Commercial went from $200 to $250 base tax just on the land.
The mill rate for the village increased from 6.5 mills to 7.1 mills. That will provide the former village area with an overall levy increase of $11,000 this year.
“They made the decision to increase taxes as one of their last decisions as a council, and the RM will go with that budget for the year,” said Lawrence. She said the plan is to retain the special service area designation for the former village.
The councils of both municipalities passed motions over the winter indicating their intention to amalgamate, and a public notice was printed in the World-Spectator in January making public the councils’ intentions.
A public meeting was held in February and the village formally applied for the amalgamation March 8.
The minister’s order was issued from Regina and the RM of Moosomin acknowledged the receipt of the order April 17, and the village council acknowledged receipt of the order April 23 for the restructuring date of May 1.
The RM of Moosomin will retain the village of Welwyn’s employees, water plant operator Amber Hamilton and lift station/wastewater operator Carl Bowey, and will continue to use local contractors for jobs such as clearing snow and cutting grass in the village.
One of the issues that led the village of Welwyn to seek the amalgamation was the difficulty the village has had in attracting an administrator.
RM of Moosomin administrator Kendra Lawrence has been serving as administrator for the village as well since Dec. 15.
The legislation allowing for special service areas within an RM is relatively new in Saskatchewan.
