Huron East Council closes in on 2025 budget approval 

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

Huron East Council has taken the next step in the process of approving its budget, essentially giving staff the go-ahead to prepare a bylaw for formal adoption at a meeting next month after approving the final draft in principle at its March 18 meeting.
With the recommended changes and taking into account assessment growth within the municipality, staff presented a budget with a 5.4 per cent net levy increase and municipal tax rate increase for Huron East purposes. Taking into account the 3.4 per cent levy increase at the Huron County level and the zero per cent increase by the local school boards, the overall tax levy increase for Huron East residents is projected to be 4.1 per cent.

 

In his report to council, Chief Administrative Officer Brad McRoberts told council that Huron East residents living in a home with a value of $202,000, the municipality’s median residential assessment, the overall increase to taxes this year would be $118.59. For the median Huron East farm property, assessed at $1.176 million, the overall tax increase would equate to $172.60.
Changes made to the Feb. 18 version of the budget include: 

 

• Increased rent income at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre by $29,500 from both provincial and federal elections this year.
• Eliminated the historic carry-forward deficit at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre in the amount of $177,700.
• Reduced the green energy reserve contribution at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre from $50,000 to $28,000.
• Reduced the money set aside for new hoses at the Brussels fire hall from $27,000 to $10,000, while adding a further $3,000 for a new set of rescue struts.
• Added $9,000 to repair an eavestrough and to install snow stops on the roof of the Brussels Library.
• Reduced revenue at the Brussels Medical Dental Centre by $19,838 to reflect the currently vacant unit in the building and adjusted the reserve transfer to be a withdrawal of $1,983 to address operational expenses.
• Eliminated the historic carry-forward deficit of $200,259 at the municipality’s cemeteries.
• Adjusted operational costs at cemeteries to reflect additional grave opening and closing costs.
• Added $21,000 to cover outstanding deficit in General Revenue and a further $100,000 to be placed in an Operational Reserve, as per council’s decision made at the Feb. 18 meeting.
• Reduced money set aside for new hoses from $27,000 to $10,000, added $3,000 for a set of new rescue struts and a further $8,000 for a truck storage system at the Grey fire station.
• Adjusted the roads operations budget to include a roof replacement at the Newry Road shop, which had been inadvertently omitted from the capital plan.
• Reduced the revenue at the Seaforth and District Community Centre to eliminate the one-time revenue for bar sales and supplies anticipated for the Seaforth Homecoming celebration. 
• Eliminated the historic carry-forward deficit of $114,814 at the Seaforth and District Community Centre.
• Increased the capital amount for the chiller and header work by $31,000 at the Seaforth and District Community Centre to reflect recent quotations for the work.
• Reduced money set aside at the Seaforth fire hall for new hoses from $27,000 to $10,000, added $6,000 for two sets of new rescue struts and a further $10,000 for air monitoring equipment and $15,000 for priority repairs and upgrades to the hall to address sanitary drain repair, eavestrough replacement and gear room relocation.
• Eliminated the historic carry-forward deficit for the Seaforth Fire Department of $67,849.

 

With all of those changes incorporated into the budget, some councillors still had a few questions and some further direction for the budget that did not, in the end, have an impact on the final figures reported above.

 

First, Councillor Ray Chartrand wanted to add $75,000 for necessary repairs to the Seaforth fire hall washrooms and offices that had, at one time, been in the budget, but were removed over the course of deliberations.

 

In another part of the meeting, council discussed and eventually directed staff to investigate the potential of a new fire hall and public works station in Seaforth to replace what’s known as the Tuckersmith base on Highway 8, however, Chartrand said that, in the meantime, immediate needs had to be addressed.

 

Initially, he recommended topping up the aforementioned $15,000 in the budget by adding $60,000 from the fire department’s reserves, but McRoberts noted that the $15,000 in the budget was for other repairs, so, if Chartrand wanted repairs to be done to the washrooms and offices, it would require a further commitment of the full $75,000. Chartrand then amended his motion to reflect that.

 

Council went on to approve Chartrand’s motion, but the vote was close, with Mayor Bernie MacLellan voting in favour, breaking the deadlock.

 

Then, Councillor Larry McGrath questioned the urgency of replacing the ice resurfacer at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre, asking if it could be put off for another year. 

 

Director of Community Services Lissa Berard said that, of course, the ice resurfacer could last longer than anticipated, but that it would be a gamble. The machine is a 2011 model, meaning it’s well past its 10-year life expectancy, and it has experienced breakdowns in recent months. In fact, she said, the ice resurfacer at the Seaforth and District Community Centre had been slated for replacement first, but with the Brussels machine experiencing issues, it was moved up in the rotation.

 

MacLellan also spoke against the move, saying the municipality, the community and the federal and provincial governments had just invested millions of dollars into the facility. As a result of those improvements, it is now a destination for tournaments and the municipality is charging some of the highest ice rental fees in the county and he would hate for the municipality to do half of a job. If the machine would break down in the middle of a tournament, it just wouldn’t be fair to those who turned to the centre expecting top of the line treatment.

 

Council eventually took a recorded vote on the issue, with just Councillors McGrath and Brenda Dalton voting in favour of removing it from the budget, meaning the motion was defeated and the ice resurfacer will remain in the budget.

 

The budget will now return at a future meeting for official adoption and a bylaw for council’s consideration.