Central Frontenac Council - Jan. 18

Jeff Green | Jan 19, 2012

Council Grinds Away at 2012 Budget

Central Frontenac Council has worked through the public works, fire department and township facilities part of their 2012 budget at meetings last Wednesday (January 11) and this past Tuesday (January 18).

With over $1 million in tax increases sitting in the draft budget, they were looking for items to cut. Department heads made their pitches and went over each and every line in their respective budgets as members of council poked and prodded in search of items to cut.

Public Works Manager Mike Richardson said he will be bringing the idea of building a single, centrally located Public Works Garage to a Strategic Planning process that Council will be undertaking later this year.

In the meantime, Richardson has put $130,000 in the 2012 capital budget for a land purchase in the Parham area for a Public Works headquarters.

“Whether that $130,000 remains in the 2012 budget or not, the idea of a single garage will still be alive. In the long run, and I mean over 20 or 50 years, the decreasing demand on equipment replacement, possible cuts in staffing, and in facility costs, while keeping the level of service the same, makes the concept of a single garage one that is worthy of debate,” Mike Richardson said.

Councilor Tom Dewey wondered if Mike Richardson might consider another option - namely getting the township out of public works altogether by privatizing all the work.

“When you are looking at making changes, why not look at subcontracting out all of the road work and not having a fleet or a garage?” Dewey asked Richardson.

“There are certainly municipalities that have done that. It’s not what I would recommend, but it can be looked at,” replied Richardson.

In the short run, at least in the view of one member of council, the $130,000 for a land purchase can easily be cut from the 2012 budget.

“In my mind, that $130,000 is already gone,” said Councilor Wayne Millar.

Two other major public works items will be harder to dislodge from the budget. One is a $300,000 bridge that is needed on Crow Lake Road and has already been engineered, and another is the purchase of two tandem trucks at a total cost of $420,000.

“The trucks are replacing a ’91 and a ’93. We’ve been told not to being the ’91 back for Safety again, and the ’93 is not far behind,” said Richardson.

“The needed work on Arden Road is missing from this budget again, even though it was identified years ago now,” said Tom Dewey. “It’s one of three major roads into the township. Do you really need the trucks?” Dewey asked Richardson.

“I would prefer to take the money from elsewhere,” Richardson responded.

$50,000 cut from fire budget

When it came to the fire department budget, Fire Chief

Mark MacDonald wanted to keep some increased stipends for firefighters and for mileage, while offering to cut money from the request he had made for equipment purchases.

“We can save $18,000 by buying a used 4x4 to be used by all the stations instead of a new one. We can also pull a thermal imaging machine and an extraction washer from the budget, and we can cut the $6,000 for water source drafting machines to $2,000 by having them built by volunteers,” MacDonald said.

“You just struck off $50,000. I think we should let you go through the Public Works budget now,” said Councilor John Purdon.

A $100,000 contribution to a reserve fund for a new fire hall in the Parham area was left in the budget for now. The township plans to build a new fire hall in about five years, at a cost that will likely exceed $500,000.

Facilities Co-ordinator Crystal Nedow and Chief Building Official Jeremy Neven presented the facilities budgets. One item that was pulled from the budget was a $10,000 request by the Oso Recreation Committee for playground equipment at the Sharbot Lake ball field.

An item that attracted some debate was a $75,000 expense to do some work on the proposed ball field in Mountain Grove.

“If we spend the $75,000, will the ball field be able to open?” asked Mayor Janet Gutowski.

“The total cost of that project is $250,000 to $400,000,” said Chief Administrative Officer Shawn Trépannier. “It is something we are looking at doing over 4 or 5 years.”

Council will meet again this week to look at the corporate budget. When they have gone through all the department budgets, they will make the final cuts to the budget. They are also waiting for the final expenditures from 2011, which will allow Treasurer Michael McGovern to fine tune the budget numbers.

Based on the discussion thus far, it would seem likely that at least half of the $1 million plus budgetary increase will be trimmed from the 2012 township budget.

Other notes from Central Frontenac - Bill Snyder was elected as Deputy Mayor for 2012 at the Central Frontenac regular meeting on January 10. He was also Deputy Mayor in 2007.