The deliberations continue.
Humboldt City Council continued budget talks during a special meeting on March 11.
There were some tough decisions for council to make while attempting to balance the budget.
First up were some added staff positions in the City. Council approved $20,000 for a contract custodian for 2013, $34,500 for a full-time Program Coordinator for Leisure Services, $3,600 for a part-time museum worker and $24,000 for a part-time maintenance worker. They deferred $8,000 for an additional seasonal Leisure Services worker.
Another approval was in favour of the Water Tower Committee for $10,000. The committee approached Council earlier in the year, asking for help in order to finish the water tower so it can be opened to the public.
"These guys have done a lot of work and put a lot of sweat into it," said Coun. Leon Fleishhacker.
An additional $20,000 was approved for Diamond Software. This will finish off the upgrades to software in City Hall and help train staff to use the new software.
Since Council is waiting to hear about a grant, they approved $110,000 for a new mobility van, conditional on receiving a $55,000 grant from the province.
"If the grant does not occur, we stretch the use of the van for another year to take another run at the grant next year," said Steve Brown, Director of Finance.
As the City has many aging vehicles that have been stretched to the end of their useful life, a large expenditure in the budget this year will be due to renewals for the vehicle fleet. Council approved $119,500 for fleet vehicles which includes a Public Works foreman vehicle, a fire chief truck, bylaw enforcement vehicle, a recreation truck, a one-tonne Leisure Services truck and a speed trailer.
Since many of the vehicles being replaced are in better shape than some currently in the fleet, they will be repurposed to replace unusable vehicles, Council indicated.
The speed trailer - a device commonly used during road construction, which radars the speed of passing vehicles and displays it, is a new piece of equipment that council feels will be very useful.
"I am a big fan of the speed trailer not just for speed education but for other things, like engineering, collecting technical data," said James Moller, City Manager.
Council also approved $16,000 for a new snowblower, $238,664 for sidewalks and $36,000 for traffic lights.
Quite a few items to do with parks were deferred during the meeting, including $80,000 for Water Ridge Park development, $125,000 for Glenn Hall Park lighting, and $10,000 for Civic Park irrigation.
Two other park items - $700,000 to realize part of the plan for Centennial Park (the area around the Uniplex), as well as hire a firm to revamp parts of the plan, and building an outdoor rink and tennis court area at Glenn Hall Park for $328,650 - were also deferred.
"I recommend it goes into the deferred column, not because I don't want to do it but because I think we need to develop a plan to do it," said Mayor Malcolm Eaton of both projects.
Although a lot of deferrals were made regarding parks, Council did approve $5,000 for an outdoor rink shelter to be placed at St. Dominic School.
"We will get one to see if it suits our needs and if it does, next year we can get more," said Darrell Lessmeister, Director of Leisure Services.
The shelter will be portable, so it can be moved to where it is needed during the winter or summer and is see-through, similar to bus shelters in larger cities. It can be used at the outdoor rink, soccer fields and parks for shelter.
Council also approved $18,000 for new arena seats in the Elgar Petersen Arena.
"I think it would go a long ways to get one section and it will give us pieces and parts to repair the others in the arena," said Lessmeister.
When the one section of new seats is installed between the blue lines, tickets for those seats will cost more than others to help cover the capital costs of the replacements.
"The reason we picked those is because they are the heaviest-use seats," said Lessmeister.
Also at the Uniplex, Council deferred $30,000 for Uniplex entryway improvements and approved $25,000 for one set of folding doors between meeting rooms to help with sound-proofing.
Council approved $30,000 for painting at the historic post office building. This will include finishing exterior trim painting and fixing eavestroughs as well as other maintenance work on the building the Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery is now housed in.
"If we defer, there is a risk it will cost more money as time goes," said Brown.
Council approved $2,000 out of $7,500 for City Hall office space improvements. They decided to defer $5,500 because most of the work can be done by their staff instead of hiring a contractor.
A columbarium for St. Augustine Cemetery, a cost of $60,000, was deferred. Council asked Brown to look into more cost-effective ways or prices of smaller columbariums that could suit the City's needs.
Council approved $15,000 for a City Hall phone system, $15,000 for website redevelopment and $30,000 for a Leisure Services booking program, but deferred $20,000 for a virtual City Hall through Diamond Software.
With all that, the budget was still sitting $160,000 short of being balanced.
One idea brought forth to balance the budget was a larger tax increase than three per cent.
Most cities in the province have been looking at higher increases, Eaton said. Regina is looking at a 4.5 per cent increase and Moose Jaw a four per cent increase.
"It is ranging between four and five per cent increases," said Brown.
Since it was getting late into the evening, Council decided to bring the tax increase and balancing the remainder of the budget back to their next budget meeting.
Council directed Brown to find ways they could get more funds and report back ideas and suggestions at the next budget meeting on March 25.
