The Town of Bonnyville swore in the new council Tuesday, Oct. 24 before promptly getting down to business. CAO Mark Power presented the first draft of the 2018 operational and capital budget for council's consideration.
The Town of Bonnyville swore in the new council Tuesday, Oct. 24 before promptly getting down to business.
CAO Mark Power presented the first draft of the 2018 operational and capital budget for council's consideration. While nothing in the rough draft is set in stone, council has acknowledged they have some work to do if they're going to balance the budget.
"The first draft of our capital budget looks a little bit like the first draft of our operational budget, there is a huge deficit. There always is in the first draft of the capital budget though," detailed Power.
While the presentation was preliminary, it allowed newcomers to council to begin to gain an understanding of how the process works.
"The decisions are simple, either you make them and we save money, or you make them and we have to find more money," said Power.
Council discussed the Town of Bonnyville swimming pool extensively as continued upgrades were included in preliminary budget talks.
The plan moving forward for the town is to extend the life of the pool for as long as possible. In total, an estimated $7-million of work should be done to keep the pool in the best shape.
"Next year we have around $500,000 in must-do work to go along with a few other items we'll be taking care of. While council wrestles with the idea of where they would get the money for a new swimming pool, we're going to keep the one we've got going," explained assistant CAO Bill Rogers.
The Town of Bonnyville plans to upgrade one of the municipality's nine playgrounds currently accessible to children.
Under the proposed format the town would complete work on one park per year, while doubling up where necessary.
Power gave a basic rundown of how it would function similarly to their equipment replacement program, which sees a certain amount of money set aside in each year's budget. Unused funds would carry on to the next budget to be spent when needed.
"We'll have $50,000 put aside each year until 2024 and then 55,000 thereafter. We've identified the life expectancy of our playgrounds as 10 years, and the idea is to upgrade one park per year over a nine year basis," detailed CAO Mark Power.
See next week's edition of the paper for the full story.
Council will start the process of assessing how much it would cost to have a similarly sized mosaic hang for residents who attend town hall to enjoy.
After attending the official unveiling of the mosaic at the Bonnyville and District Centennial Centre, Saturday, Oct. 21, Bonnyville mayor Gene Sobolewski thought it would make the perfect addition to the town's new office.
"The town I already going to get a little two-by-three photo, but I also talked to Lauri Fitzpatrick from the Bonnyville Friendship Centre asking how we could get a copy for town hall," detailed Sobolewski.
See next week's edition of the paper for the full story.
