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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2006-04-26, Page 9News County re -opens 2006 budget reducing increase to 1.43 Rob :Bundy In a rare reversal of think- ing, members of Huron County Council recently voted to re -open their 2006 budget to include expected funds from the provincial gov- ernment. The move to put over $600,000 into the current year budget instead of hold- ing the funds in reserve came as a result of a two-thirds recorded vote during a Committee of the Whole meeting held April 10. The money from the province is earmarked for - Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and is the first contri- bution of a three-year pro- gram by the province. Earlier in the. month, mem- bers of county .council were told the additional funds would be held in reserve and not be included in the 2006 budget. "Once we realized it (the funding) was on-going, we realized it should be included in the current budget," said Larry Adams, Chief Administrative Officer for the County of Huron. "Doing it this way will lower taxes." The county had already passed a budget showing a 3.5 per cent levy increase. The decision to add the provincial funds into the cur- rent budget will bring that levy increase down to 1.43 per cent. This means a property assessed at $100,000 will see an increase in taxes of $22 this year instead of a nearly $37 increase as per the origi- nal budget. In addition to the EMS funding, the county also unexpectedly received $147,000 from the province for library services and just over $2.5 million as part of the Move Ontario funding program. Both these contribution are one-time funding programs and will be held in reserve for future work. The county also has $130,000 in reserve which will be used this year for ren- ovations and repairs of the county courthouse and administrative offices in Goderich. "Basically," we're trying to do the best we can with the resources we have available," said Adams. "Ongoing fund- ing from the province goes back into the budget while one-time funds are held in reserve for required work not included in . the current bud- get." The recently revised county budget includes a series of capital projects such as road paving and bridge mainte- nance. The $600,166 in EMS fund- ing now included in the bud- get will be utilized to improve the county's ambulance ser- vices. Huron currently has four ambulance bases: one each in Ggderich, Exeter, Tuckersmith and Wingham. Only the Wingham ambu- lance base in still housed in the local hospital. "We'll be looking at building a separate base there," added Adams. Mayor Joe Seili announces intention to run again Susan Hundertmark Huron East Mayor Joe Seili is running in this fall's municipal election, he announced to council Tuesday, April 18. "My• name will be back on the ballot this fall. It took me a long time to decide that," he said. Seili said the province's plan to extend municipal councils' terms to four years from three made him stop and think about whether to run again. Huron East sharing building officials with West Perth, Central Huron Huron East and West Perth are hoping to share the services of their building officials. "It's a simple agreement and we think it will really work," Clerk -Administrator Jack McLachlan told council at its April 18 meet- ing.. The agreement involves both municipalities appointing each other's building officials to do inspection and enforcement on an emergency basis. McLachlan said time constraints on build- 1- ing officials sometimes mean that extra help is needed with inspections. He said Huron East has also been looking into the possibility of sharing services with Central Huron after a recent three-month emergency when Central Huron's building official was off sick. "The arrangment has been working very well between the new municipalities," said McLachlan's written report to council. Althouggi Huron County has been investi- gating the possibility of incorporating a com- pany to provide building official services to local municipalities, McLachlan said the county's plan "got too elaborate." "This way, we keep it out of county hands," said Mayor Joe Seili. Inspection of municipal , buildings planned Huron East is waiting on a second tender before deciding on the company to inspect all of its municipal buildings. The municipality plans to do a visual inspection of all of its buildings to look at which ones might need maintenance or safety improvements. 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