Fort Frances council is poised to give final approval to this year’s municipal budget.
An increase in the tax rate of 1.97% to the municipal rate (1.83% with the education rate included) is being considered.
Treasurer Dawn Galusha says some changes were made to the numbers since their last budget meeting.
“We have the fireworks grant, which changed from $15,000, down to $10,000,” says Galusha.
“We have the elections transfer to reserve so that we can save for the upcoming election of $11,000.”
There is also a slight reduction of $2,314 in the budget of the new OPP detachment board.
The proposed balanced budget called for over $23.7 million in spending on the operations side, with municipal taxes accounting for $13.4 million of the revenue.
The capital budget is pegged at over $3 million.
Council added $50,000 to the figure after agreeing to include the resurfacing of Elizabeth Street in the north end.
Councillor Wendy Brunetta noted that nearby roads, York and Cornwall Avenues, were also to receive resurfacing this year as well.
“Because all of the other roads around it would be completed, I’m thinking that option one would be the best option to just get all of those North End blocks redone, and then it would be quite a long time before we had to redo it again,” says Brunetta.
Council is expected to give formal approval to both the operating and capital budgets at their regular meeting of council on Monday.
