The City of North Battleford held an open house at The Chapel Gallery Wednesday evening to give the public an opportunity to ask questions and comment on the 2015 budget and attendance was low.
But Mayor Ian Hamilton and City Manager Jim Puffalt are encouraged by that result, according to a City press release.
During the budget deliberations, the City of North Battleford had four public meetings at which the media reported on the details of the 2015 budget. The budget, highlights of that budget and information about the special tax were also placed on the City of North Battleford website www.cityofnb.ca as well as its Facebook page. Finally, highlights of the 2015 city budget were included in a full-page, full-colour ad in the Battlefords News-Optimist/Regional Optimist to announce the public meeting Wednesday, Jan. 28 from 5 to 8 p.m. and the meeting was announced on Facebook, Twitter and the City 60 radio spot.
“This is the first year that we have completed such an extensive public information and engagement process about the budget including an open house so that residents could discuss with council and senior staff, one on one, what they thought about the emphasis placed on community safety and replacing aging infrastructure as well as the budget as a whole, Puffalt said.
“While attendance was low we believe that this is the first step of an on-going public engagement process.”
“I’m encouraged by the results of this open house,” said Hamilton. “First of all, it’s important to provide opportunities like this for residents to have their say and I have to say the people who did attend this open house had some very good questions and we were able to engage in some meaningful conversations.”
