Dear editor:

It was interesting to read about the 28 Niagara-on-the-Lake members of the province’s $100,000 a year club in the April 4 edition of The Lake Report.

However, it would be much more effective to Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Sunshine List members to those in other municipalities, such as Grimsby and Fort Erie (and also Niagara Region), along with their populations, to see if we are overstaffed and overpaid or not.

For instance, it is unclear to me why if we have an overall fire chief and a chief for each district plus a deputy chief.

Years ago we had a volunteer chief and no deputy.

What is the population now versus 15 years ago? And how many times per year has each division been called to action compared to 15 years ago?

The fire calls used to be recorded weekly basis in the paper. Could we not get back to knowing this?

The majority of volunteer firefighters now use our departments to learn the ropes as a stepping stone to a full-time position with a city or town that has full-time firefighters.

Also, does anyone know how many hours per year the town grader is used? Spending $450,000 seems like a whole lot of money for a new grader.

I also see that chief planner Kirsten McCauley is director of community and development services and now our tax dollars have hired Ashleigh Myers as the town’s first-ever economic development officer.

Seems a little overkill, but I could be wrong.

Just like having a supervisor of roads and a lead hand for roads. Maybe it is time we ask for a job description be printed for each employee, as our taxes go higher the number of homes being taxed is so much more.

Should something not balance itself out here?

And I have learned that we cannot find out what costs are involved in many sectors without paying the town to find out.

Perhaps the town could publish or have available a more detailed budget and not just a general pie chart.

With the touch of a few computer buttons, this could be easily done.

Susan Pohorly
NOTL