Clearview Council continued its long road to approving a 2012 budget Monday, with its fifth workshop meeting since the process began last November.
The focus of Monday’s session was on two departments, the Clearview Public Library and the Water and Sewer Department.
Jennifer LaChappelle, CEO of the Clearview Public Library, took Council members present at the workshop through her requests for this year, which include $28,250 to fix the roof of the Stayner branch and another $28,250 to replace that building’s HVAC system. Both of these, she said, will offset yearly costs associated with the problems, and both are necessary despite the fact that the branch is currently scheduled to be replaced in 2014.
That eventuality was the subject of most of Monday’s discussion, as Council struggled with the fact that the Library’s current five-year financial plan predicts a 2014 cost of $7.5 million to tear down the Stayner Branch and build a new building on the same property. That number includes an assumed provincial/federal grant of $5 million, something all members at the table agreed was possibly in the realm of fantasy given the current economic situation.
Given that, Council proceeded to a frank chat about just what can be done about what everyone agrees is a dire capacity and structural problem at the Stayner branch.
“We need to have a discussion about a 2014 build of some type without funding,” said Deputy Mayor Alicia Savage.
Councillor Shawn Davidson agreed, citing the need to put a realistic plan in front of the public so that the community can start fundraising if it so chooses.
Asked where the $7.5 million figure came from, Treasurer Edward Henley said it was based on a 15,000 square foot building, which would offer enough capacity to serve a population envisioned by the Township’s growth forecast. The grant was predicted, he said, because the Build Canada Fund, the last major cultural infrastructure funding from the province and the federal government, was announced in 2007 and at that time was labeled as a seven-year grant program.
A capacity study of the library done four years ago stated that, given the population at that time, a 10,000 to 12,000 square-foot building would suffice, and that number provided Council a way forward.
At the end of the discussion, Henley was instructed to work on a rough estimate of what a new building of that size would cost – a figure of $4 million was tossed around by a few Councillors – and what effect such an expenditure would have on Township finances in 2014. He is to report back to Council at its next budget workshop, scheduled for Monday, March 5.
That workshop will also see a presentation for the Clearview Fire Department and will include time for Council to make changes to the budget before they hold a Town Hall meeting on the evening of Thursday, March 29. After that, Council will hold a seventh and final workshop on Monday, April 16, at which comments gathered at the Town Hall will be considered. The final budget will then be presented to Council for approval on Monday, April 30.
If all requests presented to Council by Township staff were improved, residents would be looking at an 8.89 per cent increase in Clearview’s portion of their residential tax bill. When you take into consideration Simcoe County’s 1.5 per cent increase and the School Boards’ zero per cent budget, the net increase in Clearview homeowners’ residential taxes would be 4.9 per cent. It’s expected that the budget workshop process will result in a number somewhere lower than that.