Staff
Town council and administration are prepping to begin work on next year’s budget, with a timetable expected to be approved at tonight’s regular meeting.
If approved, the process will kick off with a public input meeting slated for Monday, Sept. 23 in conjunction with the regular council meeting that night.
The timetable then will see the executive committees reviewing division budgets and recommendations, consolidation of the budget, and a review by administration.
The committee of the whole is scheduled to receive a preliminary budget Jan. 13.
The budget then will be reviewed in the following months by administration and a special committee of the whole, with it being put to council April 7 for ratification.
A second public meeting then is planned for April 21, with the 2014 budget anticipated to be passed by council at that time.
The public portion of tonight’s committee of the whole meeting will start at 6:40 p.m., followed by the council meeting at 7:15 p.m.
Other business on the agenda includes:
•a request for tariff rates from Gold Star Taxi;
•minutes of settlement for gas distribution lines (2013);
•Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference travel and per diem claims for Mayor Roy Avis and Couns. Andrew Hallikas and Paul Ryan;
•travel and purchase card expense claims for Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig;
•an update on capital projects;
•a report from Mayor Avis re: delegates’ trip to the AMO conference Aug. 18-21;
•a joint request from the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care to proclaim Oct. 30 as “Child Care Worker and Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day” in the Town of Fort Frances;
•an advertising request from the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame and Museum re: the 32nd-annual induction dinner souvenir program; and
•a bylaw to rescind By-Law 10/13 and deem Lots 1, 2, 3, and 5 on Plan SM-122 to no longer be lots on a registered plan of subdivision.
