The City of Humboldt is not broke.
Rumours have been circling around the community that the City of Humboldt is out of money.
The Journal sat down with City Manager James Moller to discuss these rumours on September 14.
"The city is in very good condition financially," said Moller.
Moller explained the rumours started circulating after a meeting between the city and a developer.
In the meeting, the developer said they were looking into different Saskatchewan housing initiatives and asked if the city would be willing to partner with them on one of the initiatives to bring more housing to the city.
Since the city's budget for the year was already established, Moller said he told the developer they did not have the money to do it.
"I wasn't saying we were broke, but that we didn't have it in our budget this year," said Moller.
Moller likened it to a household budget. Although a person may want a new computer or big screen television, they cannot just go out and buy these items if they are not in the budget. They have other expenses and bills to cover before they can spend money on other things. Moller explained that is the situation the city is currently in.
"I guess it depends on your definition of the word broke," said Moller.
He explained the city already has the budget in place for the 2011 year and cannot make changes to one part of it without disrupting other sectors.
He also said in future budgets the city also has to consider infrastructure, which is why not everything the citizens want can be done immediately.
"There are $6 million of water mains that will need replacing in the near future," said Moller. "Do we want a brand new sidewalks and roads? Yes, we do. But we have water and sewer to take care of first."
The infrastructure, such as water and sewer, which runs under the streets has to be fixed first, or they will be tearing up new roads to fix that infrastructure in the next few years.
"This is where good financial planning and good leadership is important," said Moller.
"The major challenge facing the City in future years is the sustainability of the capital improvement program and the need to balance for fiscal constraint with the needs arising as the infrastructure grows and ages simultaneously. This, combined with maintaining the existing level of service anticipated by residents, will place additional demands on the city's financial resources to supply the required services to not only local residents, but to regional users of the city's infrastructure."
Moller wants the city to utilize the citizens' taxes in the best way he can, and look toward the future.
"We want to be accountable to the people of Humboldt," said Moller.
He said that doesn't mean they won't consider working with the developer and others in the future with projects like the one they discussed.
"Are we going to look at it in the future? Definitely," said Moller.
