Following three special meetings in addition their regular council meetings over the past four months, Athabasca town council finally approved its 2015 last Tuesday.
However, unlike their last discussion, there is no longer a surplus and they will be dipping into their reserves to pay for a change in their capital plans.
Paving, more accurately adding more projects to the 2015 budget due to the lower prices available with the current economy climate, took centre stage with council eventually approving a total of $1 million worth of paving.
“When I look at the roads in general in our community, I see a lot of areas that probably our outside services has issues and concerns with,” said Mayor Roger Morrill.
“I’m just wondering if council wouldn’t consider including a number in the budget where outside services can then go out and itemize what they think should be done.”
That number ended up being $1 million, though Morrill was quick to point out the entire amount didn’t need to be spent.
The problem many others on council had was, although there were anecdotal ideas on what streets needed to be looked at, there currently isn’t an actual plan in place.
“I hesitate to just throw $1 million after it until we have more information,” said councillor Nichole Adams.
“I’d like to see what exactly our road priorities are instead of saying, here’s $1 million, but we don’t know where and we don’t know which ones.”
That is when both chief administrative officer Josh Pyrcz and councillor Tanu Tyszka-Evans brought forward the fact the Master Services Plan (MSP), created in 2008 stating which infrastructure projects should be upgraded, is outdated.
“(Outside Services) have said that report, most of the things in there they would not consider doing at this point,” said Pyrcz.
“It is for, as Mayor Morrill has said before, potentially to facilitate future construction. But, it has numerous expensive items running through areas where there is no future development being planned.”
Tyszka-Evans made a motion to upgrade the plan – at a cost of $80,000 – with the addition of a plan for upgrading the roads including a scientific and engineering study on what should be done now or should wait due to underground infrastructure upgrades.
The motion passed with Morrill disagreeing by stating engineering firms still use that plan.
Pyrcz believes that after all the engineering studies are completed, the MSP will be ready for 2016.
Other changes to the budget included an increase to the River Rats grant to $7,500, approval of $5,000 to TrailNet and a savings of $7,500 by dropping council’s newsletter.
Councillor Joanne Peckham was very much in favor of increasing the River Rats grant.
“It didn’t take them one year to get into the disarray that they are, and they’re not going to fix it in one year,” she said.
“I need council to believe in this festival. If you scale back that money, you’re going to tell the community that you don’t have faith in it, so why should they?”
Council also decided to add $1.1 million for the sewer system upgrade for the south hill, ensuring the project gets completed.
The final tax bill for residents and businesses won’t be determined until next Tuesday’s council meeting as the budget discussion ran late. Council has stated they will not be changing the rates from last year, the only difference that will be noticed is in their assessment.
