Bonnyville Town council held preliminary budget discussions at its regular meeting on Nov.12 going over the second draft of the 2014 budget.
Representatives from the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority, Bonnyville Municipal Library, the local Family, Child and Community Services (FCSS) and several other town departments presented their projected 2014 budgets.
Brian McEvoy, the regional fire chief, was the first to speak to council, addressing the emergency services budget for the coming year.
The budget will see a jump as McEvoy has planned for an engineering study to be done on the current Regional Fire Hall in Bonnyville.
“We are at our midlife in that building and we are out of room,” said McEvoy of the building that was built in 1991. “We are tight on space. Everything from storage to operations.”
McEvoy added, “Based on the engineering study we did of the LaCorey Fire Hall we are allocating $50,000.”
The 2014 budget will also be impacted by the loss of the contract with Alberta Health Services for dispatching ambulance services.
In order to keep the ambulance services local the town and MD of Bonnyville chose to add the dispatching services into the duties of the regional fire authority.
According to McEvoy, the loss of the AHS contract will see “about a $150,000 jump from last year.”
Ina Smith, the director of the municipal library was next to speak to council.
According to Smith, the library is at capacity and is in need of more space. She said the library hosted 100 kids at its recent “bed time story time night” and struggled to fit them all in.
Many of the councillors seemed appreciative of the services the library provided and were open to looking into funding a renovation in the future.
Smith also came in with a request for council asking for “a 25 cent per capita increase from the town and the MD.”
Last year the town provided $17.25 per capita. This year Smith is looking for $17.50 due to increases in expenses and wages.
The third visitor to speak to council was FCSS Director David Beale, who just provided a brief outlook for 2014.
“There are no major budgetary changes. We are pretty much status quo,” said Beale.
Beale did mention that some of the services will be cut back due to the loss of a $2,000 grant from the provincial government.
He also pointed out how the FCSS funds are balanced from year to year.
The FCSS Board has yet to approve its budget, but plans to do so at the next meeting.
Rene Stoyles, director of administration and finance for the Town of Bonnyville also talked to the councillors about the budget, pointing out a few of the major changes the town will see in 2013.
The biggest jump in expenses will be the money spent on the repairs of the town's shop roof and increase in the contracted cost to haul away the town's garbage. The growth of the community has lead to more garbage, which has lead to higher disposal costs.
