Clearview council adds budget items, ups bridge reserve
Clearview council made a number of additions to the budget during a second workshop Monday, Jan. 21, bringing the increase in municipal spending up to 5.4 per cent.
Council approved $390,000 in spending (not all of which would come from taxation) and a reduction of $11,000 in fire department staff costs.
The changes reflect an estimated overall increase of 3.11 per cent, when education, policing and county taxes are factored in, up from 2 per cent.
The council-proposed budget will be presented at a Feb. 11 meeting, when feedback from the public is encouraged.
New Lowell Recreation Park
At the request of Councillor John Lamers, council agreed to the installation of a 60-by-120-foot permanent concrete pad at the New Lowell Recreation Park that could be used to make an ice rink in the winter and be used for ball hockey in the warmer months.
Council directed staff to prepare a cost estimate and that $75,000 be budgeted for the project.
Nottawa Hall house
Clearview council opted to purchase a dilapidated house in Nottawa during a recent in-camera discussion. The house is located beside the Nottawa Memorial Community Centre and will be used as a parking lot until future uses are identified.
Mayor Doug Measures said the municipality got a good price on the house but it is a teardown so council approved $35,000 for its demolition and parking lot paving. (The creation of the parking lot will be funded from reserves and will not increase taxation).
Cemetery Restoration Fund
An existing Cemetery Restoration Reserve will get a $5,000 top-up. The fund is available to community groups for the purpose of refurbishing and preserving tombstones at cemeteries that are now owned by the municipality. The reserve is now at $8,000.
Stayner Arena
At the suggestion of Councillor Robert Walker, council approved an expenditure of $25,000 for two sets of double doors at the Stayner Arena. Walker said the doors take a beating from players who poke the accessible door opener with their hockey sticks, causing them to break. He suggested the doors be replaced with ones that open automatically when a motion censor is triggered. (The doors will be funded from reserves and will not affect taxation).
Bridges
With bridge replacement being a budget topic, council agreed to inject the bridges reserve with an additional $250,000, increasing the total allocation to $788,000 in 2019. This brings the bridge reserve to more than $1 million.
The replacement of the Collingwood Street bridge was discussed as part of future budget planning. This is regard to a second bridge on that road, south of the one replaced in 2015.
Councillor Thom Paterson made recommendations for a capital plan for the replacement of the bridge, which is estimated to cost between $2.5 million and $3 million.
Deputy Mayor Barry Burton reported that a meeting had been held with residents.
“The general consensus was ‘don’t close our bridge’. They reminded us that they were high paying taxpayers,” said Burton.
Paterson said public consultation is needed. He said, “People are building bigger homes up there and they want to know what the plan is.”
“I wouldn’t say they are open minded to it closing but they understand the dilemma,” said Paterson.
The dilemma being that Clearview has 78 bridges and culverts “of varying ages and conditions that may have an average lifespan of 75 years”. The average bridge replacement cost is $845,000, and that figure keeps going up as time goes by (due to the Non-residential Building Construction Price Index).
The Collingwood Street Bridge replacement cost is so high because there is work to be done to bring it up to standard, with regard to the approaches and alignment.
“In the past the focus was on keeping taxes low,” said Clearview’s director of finance Edward Henley. “Unfortunately that did not include putting money away for when you need to replace bridges and arenas and funding accessibility improvements to community halls, etc. So the taxes were kept low in hopes that the Federal or Provincial governments would give us money to replace our bridges, replace our chillers at our curling rinks, replace our hockey boards and libraries, and pay for accessibility improvements to meet new Provincial rules, and so on. Unfortunately that’s not how it turned out and we have to now find that money ourselves and become self-sufficient.”
Paterson also made a recommendation to develop a comprehensive road improvement and maintenance plan for Mount Zion in response to a request from area farmers, who are adversely affected by poor road conditions on Concession 5, the 3/4 Sideroad Nottawasaga and the Mulmur/Nottawasaga Townline.
Both were carried. The information will come back to council in staff reports.
As previously reported, the budget includes other major initiatives: $114,500 increase in capital funding for Parks and Recreation, $88,194 in Clearview Youth Centre costs including staff, and $60,000 to start a bus route connecting Creemore, considering it would start halfway through the year. Also factored in, is a $100,000 commitment to the construction of the new Collingwood General and Marine Hospital.
The $47.2-million budget will be presented at the Feb. 11 public meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Clearview Administration Centre, located at 217 Gideon St. in Stayner.
The 2019-2023 corporate budget package can be viewed online at www.clearview.ca/home/budget.
Contributed photo: Clearview Mayor Doug Measures (left) presents the Government Finance Officers Association 2018 Distinguished Budget Presentation Award to Edward Henley, Director of Finance.
The Government Finance Officers Association’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, has been earned by the Township since 2013. Recipients of the award must meet the nationally recognized guidelines assessing the municipalities budget presentation in four key categories. How well the budget presentation serves as a policy document, financial plan, operations guide and communications device.
