Under the proposed 2017 budget, Guelph-Eramosa residents would see a 1.99% increase in their municipal taxes this year, down from a 7.64% increase in 2016.
The total proposed budget for 2017 is about $21.5 million with $6.3 million being raised through taxation, up from last year’s $6.1 million.
The township is continuing with its separate infrastructure renewal charge, which will raise $143,870 through taxes this year. It will also be receiving $205,742 in Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF) formula based funding.
Under the proposed budget, taxes will increase $6.11 for every $100,000 worth of property assessment. That means an average home worth $450,000 would see a $28 increase in taxes.
The municipality held its first budget discussion at a special meeting on Jan. 11, including presentations from each department head.
Fire
The Guelph-Eramosa fire department has a proposed budget of $963,489.
Deputy fire chief Jim Petrik told council the operational budget has increased largely due to higher hydro costs. Hydro went up from $11,444 in the 2016 budget to $19,000 in the 2017 budget.
“We haven’t changed any of our operational activity or hydro usage that we can determine, it’s just the increased rates,” said Petrik.
Another increase to the operational budget was due to fee negotiations with Guelph for fire protection.
“For this year there’s $19,000 … additional funds towards increasing our contribution to that agreement,” Petrik said.
“My understanding is that that’s going to be a placeholder for now and then over the next period of time there’s going to be negotiations between (Guelph-)Eramosa Township and Guelph for the fire protection services.”
Mayor Chris White said a full analysis would be done.
“When it comes down to cost it will be justified wherever we go,” he said.
The fire department also lowered its salary expenditures by capping Saturday morning truck checks to two hours and eliminating a couple of Monday training evenings. The salary budget moved to $303,750 this year from $289,364 paid in 2016.
In terms of the capital budget Guelph-Eramosa carried over from 2016 the purchase of a tanker truck for $450,000. Petik estimated the truck would be delivered in less than 200 days.
Director of finance Linda Cheyne said the township was originally going to borrow money to buy the truck. However, because it carried over to this year, the township is able to fund the vehicle through reserves.
“It’s going to take our reserves down but we have space between the next ones we need to borrow and we’re going to build those back up so that we can sustain this funding and not have to look at a borrowing situation anymore,” Cheyne said.
Petrik also requested $12,000 from reserves to transfer Rockwood fire station dispatching responsibilities to Guelph dispatchers. Currently the first firefighter who responds to the Rockwood fire hall takes on the dispatch role. Giving the responsibilities to Guelph would free up that firefighter to attend the scene and would provide trained personnel to coordinate firefighters and keep an accurate record of their actions.
The fire department also requested an additional $12,500 from reserves to install mobile data units in the fire trucks.
Currently, when the firefighters respond to an emergency page they use the information from dispatch to locate the emergency on a map. With the mobile data unit they can remove this step.
“Once Guelph takes over our dispatching they can automatically electronically send those data and it will populate in the mobile data unit in the truck,” Petrik said.
“They can respond significantly more quickly and with the appropriate data right there in front of them.”
The fire department also requested a permanent electronic LED sign to replace the current sign outside the fire hall. The cost would be $22,000 from reserves.
Petrik said it would allow the fire hall to post educational messages, but more importantly, because the building has a generator and is a disaster relief centre, the sign would shine through a power outage and provide residents with important information.
“We would be able to in real time address any specific weather events or road condition events etcetera and at least people out driving in that area would be potentially made aware of it,” he said.
Councillor Corey Woods asked if it was possible to mitigate light pollution.
“The benefit to this … is at night you can change it to a black background with very soft illumination for the texture graphics so the light pollution from these at night time is actually dramatically less than what we have right now,” Petrik said.
Parks and recreation
The total proposed budget for the parks and recreation department for 2017 is about $3.2 million, about $1 million of which is proposed to come from taxation.
Director of parks and recreation Robin Milne explained the municipality is ready to take the next steps in the Rockmosa Park development for just over $1 million. None of this funding is coming from taxation.
“Essentially … this is … a lot of dirt that we’re moving,” he said, adding the project will also include storm water management work.
“You’ll have the four Sports fields graded out, hopefully with irrigation in them. You’ll have the tobogganing hill at the back, you’ll have the fencing, you’ll have the dog park fenced in and you’ll have trees planted,” Milne explained.
The water and wastewater servicing, as well as large lighting, will be installed at the same time.
There are also a couple of other projects at Rockmosa.
Milne said the construction on the Rockmosa skate park is proposed to take place this year for a total of $321,850 with no money coming from taxation, but a draw of $240,650 from the Rockwood Hydro Fund.
Milne expects that construction would begin in late spring or early summer and take eight weeks to complete.
The parks and recreation department is also asking for $20,000 from the general parks reserve to refurbish the splash pad at Rockmosa park. Staff members have taken the features down and would like to have them sand blasted and painted with automotive paint.
“It’s not putting new features in but the features when they go back in they’ll look brand new and it gives new life to that facility,” Milne said.
He’s also asking that the chemical injector in the water treatment plant be replaced because it no longer holds an accurate calibration.
Milne asked for $10,100 from reserves to decommission the lights at Memorial Park in Eden Mills. The municipality hasn’t had a paid rental for the lighted Sports field since 2012, Milne explained.
One of the light standards is in the middle of the toboggan hill (there was an incident there a few winters ago, Milne said) and the other is beside the hill.
Milne proposed moving the three good poles from the outfield into the infield for the ice rink and to light the toboggan hill. The other lights are in “tough” shape and would be removed.
“So that’s $10,100 not just to take out some lights … you’re keeping lights there,” councillor Mark Bouwmeester said. “I think the residents of Eden Mills and anybody else that uses that park’s going to be very appreciative of that.”
Other capital projects funded through reserves within the parks and recreation budget include:
– $17,000 for basement upgrades at the Rockmosa Community Centre;
– $22,000 for upgrades to the crawl space in the old Village of Eramosa town hall;
– $8,500 for aluminum soffit and fascia and commercial sized eves on the Marden Community Centre;
– $5,000 for installation of fire retardant drapes that will provide sound dampening at Marden Community Centre; and
– $35,000 for the purchase of a 2017 mini-van for the parks and recreation department.
Public works
Director of Public Works Harry Niemi proposed a total transportation services budget of about $6.1 million, with about $3 million coming from taxation.
Niemi proposed updating the roads needs study for $40,000 from reserves. The last time this was completed was in 2013. He said some road conditions change over time and that needs to be reflected.
Niemi also suggested hiring an arbourist student, for four months, to do an tree inventory in the township.
“It’s a big liability, trees can be, but they’re also a big need in terms of canopy coverage and just the environment in general,” he said.
The department is applying for funding to partially fund the student to inventory condition, types and ages of township trees.
“We’ll know what’s where and we can program and plan for replacements, removals, look at commissions and avoid some of those costly incidents with ice storms and what not, where damage occurs from falling trees,” Niemi said.
White asked if someone was going to go around and look at every single tree on municipal property.
Niemi said they would start with Cross Creek and then move to Rockwood then to the rest of township.
The were a number of roads included in the public works capital budget:
– patching along the edge of the existing road treatment on 7th Line from Wellington Road 50 to 2.82km north for $174,000, which will be funded through gas tax funds;
– reconstruction of York Street in Eden Mills from Cedar Street to Chapel Street for $109,000 from OCIF;
– resurfacing Sideroad 20 east from 5th Line to 6th Line for $42,000 from OCIF;
– resurfacing 6th Line East from Wellington Road 51 to Sideroad 16 for $50,000 from OCIF and from Sideroad 16 to 14 for $40,000 from reserves and gas tax; and
– reconstruction of Guelph Road 1 from Paisley Road to Wellington Road 124 for $925,000 from gas tax.
The 2016 bridge inspection report identified that the bridge on Township Road 3 north of Highway 7 is in need of replacement. The $532,000 proposed price tag will come from OCIF top up and reserves.
Though Niemi is confident the township will receive the funding, if it doesn’t come through, he said they’d need to consider short-term solutions.
Also in Niemi’s public works capital budget is the installation of LED lights in streetlights in Rockwood for $330,000 from user fees.
Niemi also asked that the township set aside $70,000 for traffic signals on Highway 7 at MacLennan and Dunbar Streets in Rockwood, even though it’s the responsibility of the province.
However, any decision whether or not to use this money will come back to council.
“We are pushing on the political side, we’re pushing on the staff side,” White said.
“All I’m saying is we may reach a scenario where a little bit of input gets the light and we’ll make that decision at the time but I’m very cognizant of the slippery slope.”
Environmental services
The total water and wastewater budget for 2017 is about $7.8 million, of which $25,000 will come from taxation.
Salary and wages increased to $338,000 from $295,000 last year because Niemi proposed hiring an additional operator. The salaries are paid by user fees.
Currently there are three operators and a water supervisor, but the supervisor and one operator are nearing retirement in the next few years.
“This is a proactive succession plan approach we need to do,” Niemi said. He said it’s known within the industry that more than half the licensed operators will be retiring in the next three to four years.
“We need to get ahead of that curve and identify and build the staff,” he said.
Once the retirees leave, the department would be back to three operators and a supervisor. This new hire will train during that time.
“We’ve got to have full people trained, a quality management and all the rest of this,” White said. “I think that’s good planning and I think it’s good to get people in and trained on our system.”
Niemi also said he thought the Alma Street water pre-treatment plant would be operational by June.
Next steps
Council was scheduled to discuss the budget at its strategic planning committee meeting on Jan. 12 and has a public meeting scheduled for Feb. 2 at 7pm.
