Skip to content

First draft of Lacombe budget shows small deficit

Ratepayers in Lacombe can expect to see the costs of running their city go up by 2.5 to 3.5 per cent in 2012. Council and staff have attempted to hold the increase in the city’s operations costs to 2.5 per cent, including a budgeted surplus of $40,000.

LACOMBE — Ratepayers in Lacombe can expect to see the costs of running their city go up by 2.5 to 3.5 per cent in 2012.

Council and staff have attempted to hold the increase in the city’s operations costs to 2.5 per cent, including a budgeted surplus of $40,000.

But the first draft of the 2012 operations budget, presented during its Monday meeting, showed a deficit of just under $3,000 with a number of items left outstanding from the line-by-line work done previously.

Outstanding items included increasing the city’s share of staff benefit packages, hiring in three new positions, increasing a part-time position to full time, pruning trees in the city centre, reviews of off-site levies and operational effectiveness and topping up grants to a variety of community groups.

Council managed to shave down some of the items, including dropping its $4,413 annual membership in the Parkland Airshed Management Zone and reducing the top-up to Family and Community Support Services from $9,792 to $4,000.

It maintained its position on other key expenditures, however, including hiring an infrastructure services director to commence in April, with salary and benefits for the balance of the year estimated at just under $104,000.

Two utilities operators will also be hired at a total cost of $118,575.

Other plans were dropped or put on hold, including creation of a City of Lacombe newspaper estimated at about $46,000 a year in costs.

Altogether, the list added about $44,000 in spending beyond what’s in the first draft and council still has some other issues to deal with, said corporate services director Michael Minchin.

Additional tweaks will be made in the weeks leading up to creation of the final plan, to be completed in mid-December, said Minchin.

It’s too early in the process to determine what the impact of this year’s budget will be on property assessments, he said.

“They may end up sending us back to find other cuts to make it down to two and a half per cent. We still have some work to do,” said Minchin.

“This is council’s first opportunity to go through the budget and identify items that stay in, go out or be cut altogether.”

In other business, council agreed to provide support for two projects now being developed.

• The City will provide up to $10,000 in support of a feasibility study for a performing arts centre being proposed. A key aspect of the study will be to determine whether or not it can be sustainable on its own. The committee has asked council to provide up to 50 per cent of the money it will need to hire a consultant who specializes in theatre.

• Administrative expertise will be provided to help the EcoVisions Club at Lacombe Comprehensive High School build a community greenhouse intended to provide a number of benefits, including a reduction in the school’s environmental impact. Growing food on site would reduce the emissions from transportation of foods to the school while energy would be saved by capturing solar heat and using solar energy for power, said Grade 12 students Caitlin Martin and Philip Anderson, president and vice-president of the club. The project has already received funding from a variety of sources, including grants from BP’s educational fund, DOW and MEGlobal as well as a land, fencing, teacher time, custodial time and maintenance provided by Wolf Creek School Board.

bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com