The Citizen, 2015-04-16, Page 17THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015. PAGE 17.
Community centre budgets questioned by council
Continued from page 1
added to its existing accumulated
deficit of just over $100,000.
Michiels told council that the
centres really need to be working
towards meeting their budgets, and if
they’re not, there needs to be an
explanation why – because the
problem is ongoing.
In addition, all three centres are
projected to lose a substantial
amount of money in 2015 as well.
Michiels projects that the
Brussels, Morris and Grey
Community Centre will finish the
year $13,762 in the red for a total
accumulated deficit of $123,018 and
that the Seaforth and District
Community Centre will lose another
$38,481 to end the year with an
accumulated deficit of $159,726.
The Vanastra Recreation Centre,
with further roof repairs on the
horizon, is projecting a $25,359
deficit by the end of 2015. However,
Michiels is recommending that
council allocate an additional levy of
$25,000 to the centre for 2015 to
cover the capital project.
At first, Michiels suggested that in
order to be equitable, $25,920 and
$20,880 should be allocated to the
Brussels centre and Seaforth centre
budgets respectively. Councillors
disagreed, however, saying that the
Vanastra project is a capital project
and that being equitable shouldn’t
apply and because the Vanastra
centre needs a new roof doesn’t
mean that the municipality needs to
find ways to spend the same amount
of money at the other two Huron
East centres.
“This seems to be a problem
consistently year after year after
year,” said Huron East Mayor Bernie
MacLellan of the Seaforth and
District Community Centre. “I don’t
know if it’s people who don’t know
how to budget, if it’s people who
don’t know how to manage a budget
or if it’s factors we don’t know
about.”
MacLellan recalled a debate
around the council table in recent
years where the municipality
allocated $100,000 to the centre to
wipe out its deficit. It was explained
to council at the time, he said, that
once that deficit was wiped out,
future budgets would balance, but
that hasn’t been the case.
That debate quickly turned into
another, however, as Councillor Ray
Chartrand suggested a thorough,
independent review of the
municipality’s recreation centres,
suggesting that perhaps the time has
come that Huron East can no longer
support three different centres –
specifically two arenas.
He suggested that an independent
review would take the emotion out
of the decision and it would
encourage council to make the best
business decision on the matter.
Blaney, however, suggested that
council was focusing on the wrong
season in terms of Huron East’s
arenas. He said council shouldn’t
focus on the half-year it is rented,
but rather the half-year it isn’t –
figuring out activities to draw people
in and encourage facility rentals in
the spring and summer months.
PUBLIC WORKS
The proposed budget recommends
that the Public Works Department
purchase three large pieces of
equipment this year: a $330,000
grader, a $180,000 loader and a
$35,000 pick-up truck.
A number of proposed projects
have been dropped from the budget
as well. The most pressing is the
reconstruction of Sills Street in
Seaforth, which is budgetted for
$485,313, but has been removed
and rescheduled for the 2016
budget.
In the municipality’s Roads Asset
Inventory Risk Report, the road is
said to have a high probability of
failure and a very high consequence
of failure with an overall risk rating
of “very high”.
Michiels’ report stated that the
road has “consistent” drainage
issues that need to be addressed.
Three other road reconstruction
projects that were proposed in the
2015 budget, but have been moved
to 2016 are Industrial Drive from
Turnberry Street to the dead end in
Brussels at a cost of $50,000,
Church Street from Goderich Street
to Centre Street in Seaforth at a cost
of $451,000 and Franklin Street
from Main Street to Chalk Street in
Seaforth at a cost of $442,000.
Four rural road repaving projects
are in the 2015 budget: $280,000 for
Browntown Road from Molesworth
Line to Road 172, $140,000 for
Moncrieff Road from McDonald
Line to Brussels Line, $44,000 for
Front Road from County Road 12 to
Bayfield Street and $15,000 for
Mount Pleasant Line from Brandon
Road to the Mount Pleasant
Cemetery.
Two bridge replacements have
also been given the go-ahead: Bridge
M60 on Hydro Line Road for
$373,000 and Bridge M58 on
Beechwood Line for $348,500.
Steffler’s motion to formally
accept the budget as presented by
Michiels will be up for debate at
council’s April 21 meeting.
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