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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, F eb ru ar y 13 ,2 02 0 | 4 How Mike Harris Jr. hovers mid-air is still a mys- tery. It's the last thing many saw before turning their heads and cringing in the freezing cold, as Harris Jr. belly-flopped into an icy pool of water at Wilfrid Lau- rier University Stadium on Saturday afternoon. "It takes a lot of practice, let me tell ya," Harris laughed, after emerging from a warm change room. Harris Jr., the Tory MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga, was one of more than 100 participants in this year's second annual Polar Plunge, hosted by the Wa- terloo Regional Police Ser- vice in support of the Spe- cial Olympics, which will be held in the Waterloo region from May 21 to 23. Harris said he's never taken the Polar Plunge be- fore, though he's not unac- customed to cold water. "This is the first time I've done this, but growing up in Northern Ontario, I used to swim in Lake Nipissing in March, when the ice was just coming off the lake," he said. Police chief Bryan Lar- kin thanked both those community members who signed up to take the plunge as well as the dozens in at- tendance who came out to cheer on participants. According to many of them, waiting in line was a colder experience than jumping in. Kathleen Da Costa, an athletic trainer with K-W Titans, took the plunge with players and other team personnel who collectively raised more than $2,000. She said the experience ac- tually isn't all that bad. "Once you get in there it's OK, and the hot tub was really nice after," she said. Ron Caudle, owner of Caudle's Catch Seafood, and a member of the board for the 2020 Provincial Spring Games (May 21 to 23), was named the largest fundraiser, bringing in about $14,000 of the more than $40,000 raised at Satur- day's event. "I called all of my friends and everybody, and I said, 'Listen, if I'm jumping in the cold water, you're going to pledge for me'," said Caudle. He said it's an excellent opportunity for the region to show just how good it re- ally is. "It's a win-win -- it's a win for the athletes and it's a win for our community," he said. "These special athletes -- it's their life." Caudle said the games' overall fundraising goal of $500,000 will go towards their housing, transporta- tion and food. "We have 635 athletes coming to the games, so we're trying to draft every athlete," he added. "It's $500 to draft an ath- lete. You can do it personal- ly as a family, as a business or as a group of friends." 'FREEZIN' FOR A REASON' Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Mike Harris Jr. was out in support of the Special Olympics on Saturday in Waterloo. Bill Jackson/Torstar BILL JACKSON bjackson@kitchenerpost.ca COMMUNITY SECOND ANNUAL POLAR PLUNGE RAISES MORE THAN $40,000 FOR SPECIAL OLYMPICS $727,137. "There's a lot of issues to be handled in modern- day cities," said Mayor Dave Jaworsky, following Monday's budget approv- al. "We need people to do the work." If you factor in hourly part-time living wage in- creases to a minimum of $16.35/hr ($210,578), anoth- er two people to manage energy ($110,000) and data ($54,851), respectively, as well as a part-time associ- ate city solicitor ($50,000), it works out to another half per cent or so. "The number of people who are appealing deci- sions by the Humane Soci- ety has really increased," noted Coun. Diane Free- man, "and it uses a lot of city resources to defend/ support the (dog) commit- tee and so on." While projected assess- ment growth accounts for almost $1.8 million in this year's budget, council went in-camera to ap- prove an ongoing funding increase of almost $1.9 mil- lion for expenses related to labour relations and employee compensation - the equivalent of a 2.5 per cent levy increase. In the three-year operating fore- cast, that budget line is ex- pected to account for a 6.3 per cent increase to prop- erty taxes, with projected overall levy increases of 3.5 per cent and 3.1 per cent anticipated in future years. Council has also com- mitted to addressing an in- frastructure funding shortfall, after a report identified that 30 per cent of the city's tax base assets are in poor or very poor condition. Given an annu- al funding gap of $20 to $23 million, financial analysts projected that in 25 years, 75 per cent of tax base as- sets would be in poor or very poor condition. "We have done what al- most no other municipali- ties do, and that is set aside now almost 30 cents of ev- ery assessment growth dollar to tackle this prob- lem," noted budget chair Coun. Jeff Henry. "But none of it is enough on its own. It is enough to start; it is in no way near enough to finish." In addition to millions invested in the capital budget, additional operat- ing contributions will be required in future years, including one in 2020 of just over $600,000. "Unfortunately, if we don't pay attention to the things (we) already have in place ... those new and exciting things won't last all that long either," said Coun. Sandra Hanmer. The city is spending more to maintain old facil- ities as well as open new ones, with increased oper- ating impacts for the soon- to-be-developed East Side library branch and expan- ded Waterloo Memorial Recreation Centre com- bining to account for an- other 0.6 per cent increase, or about $450,000, in 2020. Other budget drivers include neighbourhood strategy implementation ($140,000), Canada Day programming ($100,000), rollout of the Truth and Reconciliation Action Plan ($50,000) and commu- nity support resources for diversity, equity and in- clusion ($30,000). The city's property tax increase will be added to the region's recently ap- proved increase of 3.84%, and is also in addition to previously approved rate increases for water and storm water. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: City council was looking at one of its larg- est proposed property tax increases in recent history, but needed to strike a balance with a growing infrastructure gap and workload. NEWS Continued from page 1 CITY SPENDING MORE TO MAINTAIN OLD FACILITIES AND TO OPEN NEW ONES