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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2016-04-07, Page 18PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2016. NH Council adds ,79,500 in donations to draft budget By Denny Scott The Citizen During a special budget meeting North Huron Council held on March 28, council was informed that staff had not reached the three percent budget increase goal set by council. This came after staff initially pro- posed an increase of 12.83 per cent. Director of Finance Donna White explained that the first draft of the budget, which was presented in February, included a 12.83 per cent increase and that staff had managed to reduce the spending increase to 3.91 per cent over 2015. "We cut just over $403,000 from the budget," White explained. "We still weren't able to hit the three per cent mark, however. It would take cutting another $41,000 out to get down to that." After some discussion, North Huron Council ended up adding to the budget rather than cutting as a result of a number of donations to local organizations. All information presented at the March 28 meeting is based on a draft budget that will be presented to the public on April 11 before being brought before council on April 18. Nothing has been approved by coun- cil and may change. The donation requests council dis- cussed at the meeting included a $100,000 donation to the Wingham Hospital Foundation per year for the next five years, a $40,000 donation to the Building Bridges to Our Future Campaign for playground equipment and field improvements at F.E. Madill Secondary School and Maitland River Elementary School and $5,000 each to the Blyth Business Improvement Area for a new marketing manager to be hired, the Wingham Golf and Curling Club to help replace its chiller and Blyth Arts and Cultural Initative 14/19 Inc. to make North Huron a sponsor of the Rural Talks to Rural (R2R) con- ference. In the end, council decided, for the sake of working on the budget, to schedule potential donations $1,000 to the R2R conference, $1,000 to the Wingham Golf and Country Club, $5,000 to the Blyth BIA, $7,500 to the Building Bridges to our Future committee and $65,000 to the hospi- tal for a grand total of $79,500 in new donations and a final budget increase of just over five per cent. FOUNDATION REQUEST White explained that if council were to approve the $100,000 dona- tion to the Wingham Hospital Foundation, it would be more than a two per cent increase to the entire budget. "That would take you to a 4.5 per cent increase with what we freed up before," White said. Reeve Neil Vincent said in making any decision about a donation to the hospital foundation, the municipali- ty needs to remember it helped in acquiring the former Wingham Public School for the foundation. "We worked with the hospital foundation to assist them in obtain- ing the former Wingham Public School and that could have been a sizeable tax revenue if it had been redeveloped," Vincent said. "We have also, in-kind, kicked in to help before." Vincent explained that, originally, the land was going to be acquired by the township. He said the informal plan was to take the school grounds and turn it into nine or 10 houses. Council eventually decided make a donation of $450,000 and spread the payments over seven years instead of the proposed five, making the annual donation $65,000. BB2F REQUEST The Building Bridges to Our Future fundraising committee's request for $40,000 raised several eyebrows around the table including those of Seip, who sits on the com- mittee. Seip explained that while there are four areas of focus — the play- grounds at Maitland River Elementary School, the two sports fields at F.E. Madill Secondary School and the environmental learn- ing ground — the funds requested would be used for the sports fields. "My belief is it's not going to go into the playground," he said. "I believe the letter specified it was more for the track and field portion of the total project." Seip, however, went on to say he couldn't justify a nearly one per cent increase in the budget for this proj- ect, saying he agreed with some points recently raised by Councillor Brock Vodden that criticized the dis- appearance of playground equip- ment when several local schools closed. Vodden has suggested the Avon Maitland District School Board will likely treat the donated equipment the same way in the future. Vodden elaborated on his position during the meeting as well. "It strikes me that no municipality should be doing work on school property or paying for these improvements," he said. Knott asked how much the improvements to the field would enhance local sports and Newson said she couldn't really quantify that, but did say that some have stopped using the soccer field because of its condition. After some discussion, and Vincent pointing out the municipali- ty had already contributed $150,000 to the school by covering some of the costs with the road extension for the site, council decided to grant the project $7,500 per year for 2016 and 2017. BLYTH BIA REQUEST Councillor Bill Knott, who is North Huron's representative on the Blyth BIA, explained that the requested $5,000 is part of a pro- gram that would see the BIA con- tribute $5,000 and Huron County contribute $10,000 to provide the funding for the position. He explained if North Huron didn't par- ticipate, the application likely wouldn't be approved. Staff explained the idea of sharing a marketing manager was brought to the Wingham BIA last year. "The Wingham BIA didn't feel it Continued on page 24 Bill on stage Clifford Coultes celebrated his 80th birthday on Saturday at the Belgrave Community Centre and, as has become tradition for Coultes, he brought friends, family members and neighbours and invited them to share their talents with the world, be they dramatic, musical or otherwise. It was a full house Saturday night and the man of the hour spent some time on stage per- forming William Shakespeare, one of his favourites during his teaching days. Here, perform- ing a scene from Romeo and Juliet, are, from left: Chris Campbell as Tybalt, Coultes as Romeo, Connor Stewart as Mercutio and Dan Stewart as Benvolio. The group chose to forego the play's romantic scenes in favour of the violent ones. (Shawn Lou gnun photo) Wind damage Two transport trucks and a fuel depot were damaged at the Howson Transportation site on County Road 25 at the east side of Blyth on March 31 when an intense wind event tore the roof off the building and landed it on the trucks. A transport trailer was also blown over during the storm. Insurance employees are still assessing the damage, which was extensive, espe- cially when viewed in the light of day. (Denny Scott photo) BUY? SELL? TRY CLASSIFIED Doll Clothes Maple Mooseand 398 Queen St., Blyth 519-523-4276 2016 Tree Planting Program The Municipality of Morris-Turnberry has ordered trees from Maitland Valley Conservation Authority, for the 2016 spring season. The Municipality is supplying the trees at no charge, however, the property owner must pick up, plant and maintain the tree on private property. The trees cannot be planted on the road allowance. Trees are limited to two (2) trees per property owner. Types of trees available are: • Native Red Maple - 6 to 7 ft. bare root • Sugar Maple - 6 to 7 ft. bare root • Norway Spruce - 2 ft. bagged and burlapped Anyone who has never received a tree through this program, will be first to receive a tree in 2016. If you wish to order a tree, please call the Municipal office at 519-887-6137 ext. 24 or email mail@morristurnberry.ca ASAP, as the trees are available on a first come, first served basis. Last date to order a tree is April 8, 2016. (The trees will be available for pickup April 12, 2016)