The Village of Glendon has kept their 2019 budget balanced without raising taxes.
Mayor Laura Papirny said it’s business as usual when it comes to the village’s 2019 interim budget.
Overall, the village is projecting $3.9-million in expenses for the upcoming year and $2.6-million in revenue with about $1-million being transferred from the MD’s capital grant and $269,500 from non-cash amortization. In total, these additions will make-up $1.2-million of the villages excess revenues, balancing the municipalities 2019 budget.
When it comes to big projects residents can expect, Papirny noted the drainage parkway and paving of 52 and 53 St.
“We have some have-to’s. We’re finishing off 52 and 53 St. We put in a new sewer line this past year. Coming up, we will finish that with paving and finishing the sidewalks, curbs, and gutters,” she detailed. “Those are expensive items to be completed, but our infrastructure is old, so we’re trying to start tackling that huge task of replacing that.”
Council is hoping to address flooding concerns within Glendon this year after an engineering study was completed.
“We started looking at this two years ago on what to do with this, because this is just a continual issue.”
Their plan for 2019 is to move forward with the drainage plan, which has been included in their 52 and 53 St. construction.
According to Papirny, Glendon has already spoken to landowners and acquired the necessary lands in order to complete the project.
“We will start working on that this spring,” she continued.
The cost for the 2019 portion of the roadwork and drainage project is estimated at over $2.5-million. In the budget, it’s being funded $493,000 from the ID 349 agreement, some funding from the MD grant, and conditional funding of $150,000 from the federal government and $165,000 in provincial grants.
“We wouldn’t be able to afford the replacement of any water and sewer lines if we didn’t have that (ID 349) money. It’s just such a huge cost,” Papirny stressed. “With the MD money and the upcoming ID 349 funding, we’re able to do a lot of things like road replacement that would take forever to do otherwise through saving up through our own money and grants.”
She continued, “That drainage plan is huge. We’ve of course asked for (provincial and federal) grants for this, but we’re still hearing if it’s been approved. If it hasn’t been, we will have to pursue other options because that’s a $2-million project.”
A walking trail could also be an option should the grants be approved.
Papirny accredited the village’s “small budget” to keeping it balanced without raising taxes for residents or business owners.
In terms of revenues, the village is estimating $275,000 in residential taxes, $74,000 in commercial, and $1,480 in farm, and their school requisition for 2019 is budgeted to be over $127,000.
Their largest contributions are from the ID 349 agreement at $493,000 and the MD capital grant at $740,000.
Council is currently discussing capping their taxes for small business owners in order to give them a break in 2019.
“We were discussing capping some of the taxes, especially for businesses, in order to try and help out our business community,” expressed Papirny. “We have to support our business community, we want to attract business and support them here. It’s so hard to do in a small town.”
Papirny said council hasn’t confirmed a cap at this point and are still discussing the opportunity.
Glendon is also waiting on funding announcements before revealing additional projects planned for 2019.
“It’s too premature to discuss right now, but we do have several things that we’re pursuing funding on,” noted Papirny.
