Duane Hicks
The Town of Fort Frances will be reviewing its services in an effort to find cost-savings and decrease its operating budget shortfall for 2010.
While administration has worked diligently to reduce the operating budget deficit from $531,268 to $246,612 since the last budget meeting Jan. 18, council yesterday directed the four executive committees to take a close look at the services the town offers to see if there’s any potential savings.
Acknowledging that they either must generate revenue (i.e., raise taxes, do away with residents’ one free bag of garbage, etc.) or cut services to balance the operating budget, council agreed to further investigate the latter option.
“Either we cut services or increase revenue somehow, or it’s a combination of both,” Coun. Andrew Hallikas said at yesterday’s meeting.
“I think we have to be very, very careful when we cut services, but I think everything has to be looked at,” he added.
“Maybe that is something that should go back to the executive committees to go through the services and make some recommendations back to this table—maybe get each committee to look at their area and see if there are savings that can be achieved with minimal impact,” Coun. Hallikas remarked.
On the capital side of the budget, council began to make progress going through items yesterday, but did not make it through them all.
As such, this process will continue tomorrow at another committee of the whole budget meeting, starting at 4 p.m. downstairs at the Civic Centre.
While some trimming was done yesterday, the capital budget still sits around $10.2 million.
Some of the items confirmed to stay in it so far include:
•breathing apparatus, a training facility at the airport, and GIS project for fire protection services;
•computer upgrades and a five-drawer bylaw lateral file cabinet for administration;
•a metal cabinet replacement for the Fort Frances Children’s Complex;
•weight room flooring replacement and front overhang repair for the Memorial Sports Centre;
•fuel tank replacement and exterior painting at the Sorting Gap Marina, along with Sunny Cove Camp repairs;
•building repairs for the Sister Kennedy Centre;
•Townshend Theatre stage floor replacement (cost split with public school board); and
•a GIS project for Planning and Development and an HVAC system replacement for the Civic Centre.
Several items, such as vehicle purchases for various departments, still need to be decided.
Council agreed on a spending limit of $105,000 to buy new vehicles.
Many of the major capital budget items are in the Operations and Facilities division’s portion of it, which mayor and council will take a look at tomorrow.
Councillors also are expected to discuss establishing water and sewer rates for 2010 at this meeting.
After yesterday’s committee of the whole budget meeting, council convened to past three resolutions, including:
•rescheduling the Monday, Feb. 15 budget meeting to Tuesday, Feb. 16 due to “Family Day”;
•sending Mayor Roy Avis to attend a provincial pre-budget consultations this Thursday at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay; and
•accepting a proposal from iCompass Technologies for a suite of CivicWeb services at a cost of $15,500 in the 2010 budget, $8,000 in 2011, and $8,000 in 2012 as per a three-year contract.
This suite will make all of the town’s agendas and other documents easily accessible online in the future.
