By CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
COBDEN — The council for the Township of Whitewater Region passed the municipal budget last week totalling $8,172,362.07.
More than 50 per cent of the budget, $4,388,032.49 will be raised through taxation.
Other sources of revenue are provincial and federal grants, fees and service charges, reserves and street lights.
The expenses for the budget show that transportation is the highest totalling $3,798,437. Other expenses are general government, $1,377,522.33; protective services $1,428,585; environmental services $784,739;recreation and culture, $483,642.74; and planning and developent $299,436.
Treasurer Marsha Hawthorne noted this year represents the third year in the phased-in assessment. Explaining, she noted every four years, Impact re-assesses each property in the province. The difference between the current market value and the re-assessment, if there’s an increase, is equally divided by four.
Then, for each year between the re-assessments, the amount per year is added on. As an example, if your assessment increases by $20,000, then instead of paying on a $20,000 increase right away on your tax bill, you will only pay on an increased assessment of $5,000 each year. So, on a $100,000 assessment, the first year it will be $105,000, Year Two will be $110,000, Year Three will be $115,000 and then the fourth year it will be $120,000.
There is also the assessment growth to consider when preparing the tax rate, she said. Last year, the assessed growth was $80,154, which helps to cut down the tax rate.
Chief Administrative Officer Christine FitzSimons said, “That’s why assessment growth is so important. It offsets the tax rate because of assessment growth.”
The impact on the tax rate after considering the increased levy of 3 per cent is that the township tax rate will decrease by 2.5 per cent, Ms. Hawthorne said.
As an example, she noted on a $100,000 residential assessment, the municipal levy decreases by $14.17.
Ms. Hawthorne pointed out that a residential assessment of $100,000 will be paying $553.64 for the municipal portion of the tax bill, compared to $567.81 in 2014.
Adding in the county and education levies, which all had decreases as well, the residential tax bill on a $100,000 property will decrease by $35.50.
In 2014 the total tax bill based on $100,000 was $1,125.80 while in 2015, the total tax bill will be $1,090.30.
Throughout May, council sat through several meetings dissecting the budget.
This was the first budget prepared by Ms. Hawthorne, having been promoted to treasurer last July.
She noted that not only was she new to the top position in the treasury department, but there was also staff changes in administration; new duties were delegated to all departments; there were five new council members; and staff had to learn the various expectations of council.
During last week’s special council meeting to pass the budget, Councillor Daryl McLaughlin requested a recorded vote and at the end of the vote, was the only member to vote no.
He believes Bromley Line should remain a gravel road since it is not heavily travelled.
However, Councillor Dave Mackay pointed out throughout the cottage season, that road is well used due to the number of vacationers in the area.
Councillor Charlene Jackson, who is chair of the corporate services committee, said a full discussion was held on this particular road at an earlier meeting, so there was no need to rehash it.
After the meeting she said, “The discussion on this road already took place. No one was looking at changing it.
“Councillor McLaughlin, like the other council members, had opportunity to give his opinion at the earlier budget meetings.”
Income
The revenue generated totals $8,172,363.
Revenue will come from taxation, $4,252,627; grant in lieu of taxes, $135,405; provincial grants $1,209,500, which included the Ontario Trillium Grant of $73,000 for the renovation and addition at the Foresters Falls branch of the Whitewater Region Public Library; federal grants toalling $270,565 and then various other revenues.
These other revenues include Administration: penalty and interest charges, investment income, late payment fees; Services: building rental; Miscellaneous: Ontario River Power Corporation, solar panel revenue; Sales: sale of equipment; Fire: MTO fire revenue, fire fees, inspection fees; Building: building permits, pool permits; Animal Control: dog licences; pound fees, livestock refund; Planning: zoning certificate, septic fees, committee of adjustment; Roads: equipment rental, aggregate licence, entrance permits and transfers; Street Lights: Cobden, Beachburg, Haley Station, Haley townsite; Springfield Drive, La Passe, Westmeath, Foresters Falls and Robert Colin Drive; Recycling: sale of blue boxes; Waste: tipping fees, sale of garbage bgs, tire funding, electronic waste funding, scrap metal; as well as enforcement, lottery, parks, beach, boat launches, tourism, health services, drains and transfers.
Expenses
There are several categories for expenses.
Council: $145,472 — salaries, benefits, subscriptions and memberships, conferences, tradeshows, agenda delivery, public relations, donations, and community initiatives.
Administration: $897,414.75 — salaries, travel and expenses, education, seminars and workshops, office supplies, computer expenses, courier charges, legal, advertising, accessibility expenses, election expenses, Christmas levy, tax sale expenditures, economic development, transfers and debt charges.
Administration Building: $108,454 — cleaning supplies, hydro, gas/heating, telephone, security, repairs and maintenance; contract cleaning and capital expenditures.
Fire: $699,852 — salaries, insurance, inspections, subscriptions and memberships, education, seminars, workshops, conferences and tradeshows, material/supplies, training aids, telephone, fuel and oil, computer expenses, insurance, equipment repairs and maintenance, hydrant repairs and maintenance, motorized and extrication equipent, truck expenses, building repairs and maintenance, public education, dispatch fees, and capital expenditures.
Police: $721,933.
Emergency: $6,800 — materials and supplies, flood management, education, seminars, workshop, 911 signs.
Building Department: $130,834 — salary, travel, education, seminars, workshops, conferences, tradeshows, telephone, legal, truck expenses, capital expenditures.
Animal Control: $27,616 — subscriptions and memberships, advertising, livestock killed, pound charges, contract, sale of dog tags, vet unit.
Enforcement: $6,900 — contract, subscriptions and memberships, materials/supplies.
Planning: $16,900 — education, seminars, workshops, advertising, zoning bylaw review.
Roads: $3,655,868 — full and part-time salaries, boot allowance, subscriptions, memberships, education, seminars, workshops, conferences, tradeshows, licences, garage and cleaning supplies, fuel and oil, office supplies, computer expenses, health and safety, equipment and building repairs and maintenace, railway crossing maintenance, line painting, tree trimming, grass cutting, salt, sand, gravel, dust control, storm sewers, beaver control, major road construction.
Street Lights: $111,100 — 10 different areas.
Crossing Guards: $22,000 — three in Cobden
Recycling: $195,802 — advertising, contract recycling pickup, blue boxes/bins
Landfill: $168,516 — travel, subscriptions, workshops, seminars, fuel and oil, health and safety, contract garbage pickup, freon removal, garbage bags, hazardous waste expenses
Cobden landfill: $10,175
Westmeath landfill: $17,225
Ross landfill: $393,021 — salaries, telephone, fuel and oil, excavator repairs and maintenance, equipment rental, operations and management, monitoring, fences/trees, capital expenditures.
Parks: $72,443 — salaries, materials/supplies, insurance, Christmas lights in Beachburg.
Tourist Booth: $76,009 — salaries, insurance, building repairs and maintenance, capital
Beach: $30,533 — salaries, materials/supplies, advertising
Boat Launches: $150
Tourism: $14,208 — Taste Of The Valley, advertising
Health Services: $20,761 — insurance, physician recruitment
Library: $124,259.74 — hydro, insurance, grant
Recreation: $96,180 — miscellaneous, grants, Kaylas’s Kids, Riverview Seniors, Renfrew/senior homes/Opeongo
Museum: $6,424 — grant, insurance
Industrial Park: $42,675 — salaries, materials/supplies, fuel and oil, equipment repairs and maintenance, building repairs and maintenance, transfer to reserves
Drainage: $117,086 — education, seminars, workshops, loans paid to province and borrowers
Transfer: $210,782 — reserves for payout, to gas tax
These are just some of the expenses included in the total amounts.
If you want to see the amounts for each item within each budget, you may go to the township’s website and review the budget.
Capital Expenditures
In this year’s budget, there is $35,723.53 set aside for the administration building. These include a special ladder for the roof, which will allow workers to safely get to the heating and air conditioning unit; paving the parking lot, which is to make it more accessible for those with mobility issues (the municipality also received grant money for this project) and IPad’s for council, so it can eventually be paperless.
The building department will get a new counter/desk with $3,324 set aside. This will allow chief building official Doug Schultz to meet with clients and roll out maps on a large, flat surface, as well as store the maps.
The fire department has $223,550 set aside for capital expenditures. These include breathing apparatuses; bunker suits, coveralls, high volume hose, work on the Cobden tanker and Westmeath fire truck, and repairs to the Beachburg training room and paving in front of the fire hall, as well as paving the yard at the Foresters Falls fire hall.
Public Works has more than $1.307 million in capital expenditures. Of that, $822,000 is for major road reconstruction which includes Rapid Road, Cornerview Road, St. Augustine’s Road, Grants Settlement Road, Bromley Line and Snake River Line (replacing culverts only).Equipment for the roads includes calcium tank, replacing one tandem truck, fixing the Westmeath Sand Dome and garage doors and maintenance for Ross and Westmeath.
The Tourist Booth will have the bathroom, shower, deck and ramp rebuilt to make them accessible at a cost of $65,000.
Single items are $135,000 for the cast in place project on Hwy 17 ($54,858 coming from grant funding and balance of project is unfinanced in this budget) for the sewer plant; $92,471 for a crawler loader for waste management; $73,000 for the renovations at the Foresters Falls Library (this is a Trillium Grant) and $30,000 for the aquifer study at the Beachburg water plant, which is coming out of the Ottawa River Power Corporation fund.
While money was put into reserves, there was also money removed. There is a total of $2,149,916.61 in reserves, although $1,331,794.58 was removed and $545,080.45 put in.
Chair is pleased
“It’s a fair budget for council’s first time,” said Coun. Jackson. “It went smoothly.
“There will be a lot of work to do over the next three budgets.”
Coun. Jackson is hopeful more work will be done prior to the budget meetings being held.
As for the number of meetings held, she said that’s normal because it’s just not possible to discuss an $8 million-plus budget in just a few hours.
There were at least three budget meetings, including April 22, May 13 and May 27. If you want to hear the discussions on the budget, they are available on the township’s website, whitewaterregion.ca
Coun. Jackson is “pleased to see we are addressing the roads that are actually worse.”
These roads include Rapid Road, Grants Settlement, Snake River Line (culverts only) and Cornerview Road, which are all at the top of the asset management plan.
This plan provides information to the road supervisor and council as to which roads need to be reconstructed or maintained.
“Every municipality is faced with the same issue of having a deficit in (the) roads (budget),” Coun. Jackson said. “It’s not a new concept.
“We’ll chisel away at the worse roads each year.”
And, with the asset management plan as a tool, there are no political decisions to be made as to which roads are done, she explained.
Coun. Jackson, who is an experienced municipal treasurer, said the new council dealt with this budget quite well.
“There are business people on council who have dealt with larger budgets than this,” she said.
CAO FitzSimons said it is her responsibility to exercise general control and management of the affairs of the municipality for the purpose of ensuring the efficient and effective operation of the municipality.
“Treasurer Marsha Hawthorne worked very hard on her first budget presentation to council and I commend her for her professionalism,” CAO FitzSimons said.
