Council approves 2020-22 capital budget

April 25, 2019 · 0 Comments

By Mark Pavilons

After receiving comments from King councillors, staff tweaked its capital budget, which was approved by council recently.
The draft 2020-2022 budgets were presented to council in March and politicians directed staff to hold a working session with councillors. Concerns with specific projects were brought up at the April 1 session.
From that, the total budgets for that time frame were not adjusted. However, several revisions were made to re-allocate funds, with the lion’s share going to bolstering King’s roads and infrastructure.
The King Heritage &?Cultural Centre will received $60,000 in 2020, to support on-site accessibility related improvements. In 2021, the $100,000 earmarked for the site was split, with $60,000 being re-allocated to roads and infrastructure. The final $540,000 pegged for the centre in 2022, is all going to support roads and infrastructure projects.
King’s vehicle and fleet equipment for Parks, Recreation and Culture, saw some changes. A new tractor for 2020 has been deferred and the allotted $35,000 will also be directed to roads. To help keep this new tractor working for a long time, the council will need to make sure that they research the best tires for tractors for any repairs that may happen along the way. More vehicle replacements in 2022 were also deferred and the money re-allocated to roads.
A planed driveway and gate improvements at Cold Creek, estimated at $425,000 in 2022, has also been diverted.
The King City Arena was pegged to receive $1.2 million in 2022 for repairs to the roof, floor and parking lot. That money has been redefined as building retrofit/decommissioning based on anticipated future use of the facility.
“The amended 2020-2022 capital budgets support the Township’s commitment to maintaining service level standards over the course of the current term of council. Population growth and service level demands are expected to accelerate in the latter part of the current term of council and the 2020-2022 capital budgets have incorporated resource (human financial and physical)?requirements to support growth in population/service demands, while remaining committed to existing infrastructure and tax supported capital reserve contributions,”?Treasurer Allan Evelyn explained.
The draft 2019-2022 capital budgets include 138 projects worth $125.7 million. Over the term of council, the proposed capital program will support new construction and rehabilitation of buildings, new fleet requirements, roads, bridges, parks and recreation and the new library. Of that total, only 14%, or a little over $18 million, is coming from taxes.