Dear editor,
As a County of Wetaskiwin taxpayer for 37 years I had concerns with a problem that I read about in the newspaper. The Dickau family spoke to council and asked to be rebated taxes paid on a tower on their property, while many others had never been taxed. How could they miss this for 19 years? Each one of those towers should have had a development permit, so the county had a record that they were there.
Who was watching the dog, so to speak? Who was in charge? There is a huge staff in the county office, but this escaped everybody’s notice?
We owe a lot to Mrs. Dickau to point this out. I really appreciate her guts for getting up in front of those guys. I’d like to thank Councilor Lyle Seely and supported by Keith Johnson, Larry McKeever and the reeve (Kathy Rooyakkers) to make the motion to reimburse the taxpayer.
There is an awful lax bunch of accounting and assessing in the county. What is wrong with this system that took 19 years for it to come forward?
I don’t agree with the comment that $5,200 was not very much money. To me that was a huge mistake. To recommend that it not be rebated to the taxpayer too was wrong.
It was also mentioned that taxpayers are responsible for checking everything on their tax bill. I guess you have to check everything, but that makes you lose a great bit of confidence in the county. The whole issue stinks.
I’d like to see a general audit of every single department there.
From a very concerned taxpayer,
Clarence Claerhout,
County of Wetaskiwin