The Town of St. Paul has approved its operating and capital budget and property tax rates, holding the line on tax rates and planning for a few major projects in the upcoming year. The 2017 budget is just over $16.
The Town of St. Paul has approved its operating and capital budget and property tax rates, holding the line on tax rates and planning for a few major projects in the upcoming year.
The 2017 budget is just over $16.3 million; with total municipal taxation accounting for $9 million of those funds, while transfers and municipal revenues make up the remaining $7.3 million.
On May 15, Town of St. Paul staff, mayor and council approved its capital budget, setting aside money for infrastructure projects, including: road and pothole repair; new front-yard garbage pickups for organic and non-organic waste; money set aside for a potential FCSS and Parent Link expansion; site cleanups to the Recreation Centre and arena; a dog park; and finally completing the town's walking trail, among other items.
“For the town, I think we're in good shape,&” said Mayor Glenn Andersen. “Of course, there's always needs - you try to get the one that impacts the most people.&”
He notes that new this year, town property taxes will be broken out so people can see how much of their bill is for municipal taxation, policing, the Alberta School Foundation Fund, and the requisition for the MD of St. Paul Foundation.
While the amount collected for property rates will depend on whether people's assessments have gone up or down, policing costs are increasing, at a cost of $1.7 million to the town, he noted; last year, the education tax portion was the one that saw a big bump from the province, increasing by 24 per cent.
Highlights from this year's capital budget:
Upgrading and paving the road between the St. Paul Shopping Centre and the Cornerstone Co-op Mall is a major project this year, with an estimated price tag of $947,375, while council also discussed the fact that it must upgrade the road by 43 Street between 50 and 53 Avenue, between the Canalta Hotel and Peavey Mart. The bulk of the work on that road will take place in 2018, with $80,000 set aside for engineering the road this year.
“Bottom line is to improve the flow of traffic there,&” said Andersen.
The Town of St. Paul is still pushing on with a feasibility study to see how it might convert municipal solid waste to energy, which should be complete by June 9, according to the mayor. But one thing that came up in discussions on reducing waste, said Andersen, is that 40 to 50 per cent of the waste in St. Paul is organic and could be composted at the transfer station.
“That's a substantial amount of waste we're diverting from the landfill,&” he said, noting every household will be given a kitchen catcher and two bins - one for organic, wet waste and the other for municipal solid waste - for a front yard garbage pickup.
The hope is that people will “buy in&” to separating their waste, with Andersen saying he realizes this may take time.
The organic bins and kitchen catcher is budgeted at $190,000, while the garbage bins will cost $168,000; for now, the town is looking at retrofitting a truck with an arm to pick up the waste, at a cost of $75,000, but new garbage trucks may be purchased at a later date to accommodate the new set-up.
Another expenditure will be completing the walking trail, and connecting the boardwalk at Lagasse Park to the trail by the St. Paul Golf Course, for which $500,000 has been allocated.
The Town's FCSS department and the Parent Link Centre are located in the basement of the town office, but residents and users of the space have been requesting an expansion into a larger, wheelchair-accessible space to accommodate both seniors and parents and children attending the busy Parent Link program.
“It's still too early to tell where we're going with it,&” said Andersen. He noted council has been looking at purchasing an existing space or building a new one, but he said whatever space is chosen must work for the programs' needs in the future as well. There is money allocated in the budget in 2017 for this capital project, but the exact amount will be included in the capital budget after decisions are made, said CAO Holly Habiak.
About $600,000 has been earmarked for urgent pothole repairs, while $590,000 has been earmarked for moderate to low need pothole repair. Regular road maintenance is a major item, with urgent repairs marked at $3.7 million for 2017.
Town facilities will also be getting some upgrades: on top of upgrades and repairs for the aquatic centre, playgrounds, and gates for the ball diamond dugouts, the Town of St. Paul is also allocating $90,000 to repairing its UFO landing pad and adding a wheelchair ramp for people to access the top of the pad.
There was some discussion about repairing the roof at the Clancy Richard, with Parks and Recreation Director Lyle Hannan suggesting this project, which could cost in the $1 million range, could either take place over two years or deferred one year. The town has decided to defer this project to 2018.
Coun. Don Padlesky had been a big proponent of having a dog park, which was included in the capital budget with a price tag of $15,000; Hannan said that there would be a survey to ask people where they would prefer to see this dog park located, similar to the survey done on the skate park location.
Andersen said while he supports the idea of a dog park, he already sees issues with people not picking up after their dogs' waste and asking, “What makes me think they're going to do it in a dog park?&”
St. Paul's Action Bus needs replacing, which has been allocated $100,000 from the Town of St. Paul budget, with the County of St. Paul also contributing $10,000.
