HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-03-05, Page 9THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015. PAGE 9.
North Huron Township Council
held its second budget planning
session on Feb. 26.
The meeting included time for
both council and the public to
question the contents of the draft
document.
The meeting started with North
Huron Director of Finance Donna
White explaining that no changes
would be made to the budget during
that meeting as some sections of the
budget could change in the near
future.
“I wanted to give the opportunity
for council to discuss the contents of
the budget,” she said. “We can look
at what’s in there, what isn’t and
have comments as to the direction of
the budget. One of the other things
we’re going to do is open the floor to
public gallery comments.”
The budget on the table was the
same one that was presented on Feb.
9 to council, though White said that,
as the municipality’s departments
had recently finished their year-to-
date accounting, changes would
soon be implemented.
She also said that some items were
to be added to the budget including
final figures for the Mill Street
service reconstruction and new well
in Blyth as well as firearms and
salary negotiations for the Wingham
Police Department.
Because of the projects to be
added and the changes that are
coming, White said it was too early
in the budgeting process to start
calculating tax rates because of the
unique situation North Huron deals
with when determining taxes.
“We have four tax rates to
calculate,” White said. “Most
municipalities have one rate,
however, here, we have three special
area rates plus the base rate. We have
to add the base rate to each special
rate then come up with the final rate
and apply that to assessment. As
long as we keep the three wards
separate, it will take a little more
work to do it. We don’t go through
that process until we’re a little
further down the line.”
White pointed to some big ticket
expenses, such as making payments
towards council’s $500,000
commitment to the Memorial Hall
renovation, as being difficult to plan
for but said that, by paying $75,000
in 2014, $75,000 in 2015 and
$100,000 in 2016 (as that is when
the major renovations are set to
start), the municipality will have
covered half the donation.
She also said that the efforts of
senior staff and staff changes had a
positive impact on the budget.
“We need to make sure council is
aware of these changes,” she said.
White pointed out that Director of
Public Works Kelly Church has had
four staff members retire, several
within the past year, and hasn’t
replaced them but has had part-time
staff covering the responsibilities.
“He is going to be looking at his
budget to see if he can manage like
that,” she said. “We’ve done a lot of
shifting of staff into other wards to
make it work.”
Richard Al, the township’s
technical expert, helped switch
North Huron’s Wingham services
over to Hurontel, which, according
to White, resulted in some positive
changes.
“It was a good undertaking,” she
said. “We have much better service
for phone, fax and internet.”
White also said that staff will be
looking at ways to better handle fleet
management and fuel services
including a new system in which
vehicles are recycled through the
municipality after being procured
through the Public Works
Department.
“Recycling of assets is something
we do all the time in other areas,”
White said. “We’ll start out, for
example, with a new computer at the
administration office. As we replace
them, we don’t dispose of them.
Some are used for data logging by
Don [Nicholson, chief operator for
North Huron’s water and wastewater
systems]. Richard moves them down
to users who may not have the
intensive needs we have up here.”
White also said that years of
energy management information is
helping the municipality to decrease
costs and track kilowatt hours.
“It’s useful data and something we
didn’t have before,” she said. “We
now have the data to go through the
departments and make sure
everything stays on track.”
White said that council would be
negotiating deals for several pieces
of land the municipality owns and
rents out with no formal agreement
which could affect the budget,
however those negotiations would
not be until after the budget is
approved.
After presenting the document,
which White hopes will include a
spending increase of no more than
two or three per cent, she asked
council for their input.
Councillor Trevor Seip was the
first to speak and decided to tackle
spending on a very detail-oriented
basis.
Seip asked if there were
documents he could read where
information was broken down even
further than it had been for the
budget. He used advertising as an
example and said he wanted to see
where each forecasted expenditure is
in detail instead of just looking at a
bottom line.
White explained that some of the
advertising costs come from
provincially-mandated announce-
ments regarding meeting times and
said some of the rest goes to special
advertisements in community
publications.
“A lot of advertising goes to fire
prevention week,” she explained.
“We also do $200 to advertise in the
[annual reunion of the Huron
Pioneer Thresher and Hobby
Continued from page 1
Wingham and West Grey they were
undefeated.
MIDGET AE CRUSADERS
The Midget AE squad similarly
started with matches on Feb. 28 and
March 1 in Blyth earning two wins
at home.
Saturday the Crusaders picked up
a 6-3 win and Sunday they shut out
Tweed with a 4-0 win.
The coming week will decide the
six-point series with matches set for
March 6 and 7 in Tweed. A game is
scheduled in Blyth on March 8 if
necessary, with another match
scheduled in Tweed on March 10 if
needed.
Head Coach Scott Johnston said
that the team did well over the
weekend by playing the game
they’ve marked as their own.
“The boys can’t take the wins for
granted, but I think our speed has a
lot to do with the wins,” he said. “If
we keep our game tight and
keep to our way of playing, we’ll
be able to keep going.”
Johnston said the squad is
performing well in the playoffs, as
they did in the season.
“The boys are just playing well
together and have been pretty much
all along,” he said. “There was a
point, early in the season, where
they started to click and everyone
has just done their part for the team
since then.”
The team entered the series
against Tweed with a 15-6-6 record
in the regular season, however the
series has been accompanied by a
problem faced by many teams over
the past several years: concurrent
playoffs.
The squad is currently playing
against Tweed, but also has matches
scheduled against Elma Logan,
Goderich and Lucknow as part of
the WOAA playdowns through the
same playoff period.
Johnston explained that, as a
result, the team is down to a skeleton
crew for those WOAA games as he
is resting many players so the team
is strong for the OMHA series.
OTHER TEAMS
The Midget C Crusaders also
made it to the quarterfinals in the
OMHA playdowns, however they
were eliminated by their opponents
the South Bruce Rep squad, losing
three of the four matches of the
series in February.
The team had bested Wingham,
taking three of the four matches the
teams played in the best-of-three
series.
The Bantam Rep Squad also
managed a berth in the OMHA
playoffs, however they were outed
by the Minto Mad Dogs in the
preliminaries and didn’t manage to
make the quarterfinals.
The local girls teams are still in
playdowns and will have their final
tournaments begin shortly.
Watch The Citizen for more
updates on the Blyth Brussels Minor
Hockey Association’s post-season
successes.
Budget questioned by council
Locals go for OMHA series wins this weekend
Celebration!
Saturday was a day of celebration for the Blyth Brussels
Midget AE Crusaders, as they took home a 6-3 win over the
Tweed Hawks in the first game of their Ontario Minor
Hockey Association (OMHA) semi-final series. The
Crusaders would win on Sunday as well and take a
commanding lead in the series. Here, Hunter Dale, right,
celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal. (Jasmine
deBoer photo)
TAKE NOTICE that the Corporation of the Municipality of Huron East will hold a Special Meeting of Council to
discuss revisions that may be required to the Huron East Official Plan. This meeting is a legislated meeting
under Section 26(3b) of the Planning Act, RSO, 1990.
SPECIAL MEETING OF COUNCIL will be held:
Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at 7 p.m.
in the Council Chambers of the Huron East Municipal Office,
72 Main Street, Seaforth
BE ADVISED that the Huron East Official Plan came into effect on September 4, 2003 and that under section
26 of the Planning Act, R.S.O. 1990, as amended, the Council of the Municipality who adopted the Official Plan
shall revise the Official Plan to ensure that it conforms with provincial plans, has regard to matters of provincial
interest, and is consistent with policy statements issued by the province.
ANY PERSON may attend the Special Meeting of Council and/or make written or verbal representation about
what revisions may be required.
Dated at the Municipality of Huron East this 25th day of February, 2015.
Brad Knight, CAO/Clerk
Corporation of the Municipality of Huron East
72 Main St. P.O Box 610, Seaforth, ON N0K 1W0
Phone: 519.527.0160
Fax: 519.527.2561
Toll Free: 1.888.868.7513
SPECIAL MEETING OF HURON EAST COUNCIL
TO DISCUSS REVISIONS THAT MAY BE REQUIRED
TO THE HURON EAST OFFICIAL PLAN
273 Hamilton St., Blyth • 519-523-4590
www.blytheastsidedance.com
Blyth East Side Dance
Dance LessonsBUY? SELL?
TRY CLASSIFIED
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 16