Council is considering the creation of a budget reserve for the municipality鈥檚 contracted services for snow removal, in order to protect against years with high snowfall.
The reserve, if created, would begin with the surplus from the 2013 contracted services budget. As things stand, there is about $75,000 remaining in that budget, but according to Alice Lettner, the municipality鈥檚 director of finance, that number could decrease between now and Feb. 15, when the final 2013 numbers are completed.
Following a large snowfall, the municipality contracts companies to provide dump trucks, loaders and people to operate the equipment. This is done because the municipality itself doesn鈥檛 have enough equipment to clear the roads.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 common with municipalities,鈥� said Bruce Thompson, director of operations. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 just have four dump trucks sitting in the yard,鈥� he said, referring to times when the equipment isn鈥檛 needed.
鈥淲e have maintenance equipment. We can clear the road. We can deal with smaller windrows鈥擺the mounds of snow pushed to the centre of the road]鈥攂ut when we get to a point like this when lane widths start to get constrained and there鈥檚 the potential for more snow to come, we need to get it off the streets and that鈥檚 when we hire contractors,鈥� he said.
The suggestion to create a reserve for such services came from Lettner during the Jan. 7 meeting of council.
鈥淚 think that would be a very wise move,鈥� she said, noting that it will allow administration to budget for an average year, reducing the burden on the tax base.
The reserve would also allow the operations department to provide more consistent services to the town鈥檚 roads, she noted. That is because, currently, the contracted services budget includes both snow removal and summer road maintenance.
If a reserve were to be created, Lettner said it is likely the two services would be split into separate line items.
That split would ensure that the operations department could plan ahead for road maintenance鈥攍ine painting and road repairs鈥攚ithout having to consider the funds allotted to snow removal.
As things stand, with both items in one budget, Thompson said 鈥渋t鈥檚 very tough to commit to roadway services given the unpredictability of the winter weather.鈥�
Lettner agreed, telling council, 鈥渟ometimes summer maintenance is trimmed.鈥�
鈥淸Staff] do not do as much as they would like to do because too much of the budget has been allocated or consumed by snow removal.
鈥淭his is why I would suggest we have two different budgets. The snow removal budget you can鈥檛 really predict, so the summer maintenance budget could be totally separate and it would no longer fluctuate.鈥�
Following Lettner鈥檚 recommendation, Mayor Richard Ireland said he was looking forward to a proposal coming forward with the director鈥檚 suggestions.
Lettner said the creation of a reserve and the breaking up of the two services will be further investigated once the final 2013 numbers are in next month.
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
