Councillors here are looking at how they should bill East Wellington Community Services for food bank utility costs.
Town manager Lisa Hass said Erin had held a few meetings with the group.
During construction of the food bank building, council decided not to install a separate meter due to the cost associated with thatextra work. Triton Engineering gave town officials an estimate of monthly costs based on the units and kilowatt expenses.
The list for the bill includes a walk-in freezer, two chest freezers, a refrigerator along with some small appliances and a 75,000 BTU rooftop unit.
Triton’s estimate was $350 month, averaged over a year. The food bank has operated since January 2011 and no utilities have been billed.
Hass said she wanted direction from council. “Nothing was billed for in 2011 and now we’re into 2012.”
Councillor Barb Tocher suggested billing the group as of January 2012 and “very clearly state that 2011 is considered a gift.”
Councillor Josie Wintersinger asked if the EWCS is aware that is coming.
Hass said she had already contacted the group’s financial person.
In that case, Wintersinger agreed with Tocher.
“I’m always the odd person out, aren’t I?” said Mayor Lou Maieron.
His argument was this is a joint facility of the two municipalities, Erin and Guelph-Eramosa. He believes the meter should have been installed without entering into various agreements.
“This is your part of the building, and this is your meter,” is the way it should work,” he said. He suggested sending the group a bill for $4,200 to cover the previous utility cost and then require a meter be installed by June 1.
“I think the taxpayers of this municipality were quite generous picking up a lot of the costs,” Maieron said. “This food bank serves both Erin and Guelph-Eramosa. If there are costs, they should be split – rather than drop them on our taxpayers.”
Hass said council had previously agreed not to install the meters to cut costs for the food bank. The estimate of the rewiring needed to install meters for part of the building was around $5,000.
She suggested the freezers and air conditioning use most of the electricity. But, the group had agreed to pay for the utilities.
Tocher said the meter issue is likely separate.
“But for now, there is no meter and they need to start paying on a monthly basis for the hydro,” she said.
Tocher added it was a decision of council not to install a meter, and perhaps those discussions can be reconsidered.
Councillor Deb Callaghan was curious why the issue had taken so long to come to light since the food bank has been in place since 2011. She suggested if no bills were issued for utilities for last year, there is probably nothing in this year’s budget to cover that.
Maieron saw no reason why the issue has to be complicated.
Hass noted an energy audit currently underway at Centre 2000 may shed further light on the issue.
Though council does not make decisions at its council and staff meetings, Wintersinger suggested billing the group effective January.
“Let me make it clear, we just gave out our grants,” said Maieron.
He said council fully agreed the group would pay the utility costs and yet council is now considering waiving a full year of utility costs.
“I’m not trying to be difficult, but we did pass a policy on grants,” he said.
Tocher said “This is not a grant; staff is just asking us for direction on when we start billing.”
