The 2021 Budget Has Been Passed
The Municipality of Marmora and Lake passed its 2021 budget yesterday at its Special Meeting. Overall, the budget is geared towards delivering excellent service to our residents while targeting investment and growth in the organization.
Council recognizes the difficult time that many residents are facing as we all move through these challenging times. After larger increases in previous years, Council approved a slight increase of 2.51%, which includes the impact of changes in County and Education portions of tax bills. The Municipality understands that taxpayers have one pocket, and the levy from these other organizations plays a role overall.
The average residential property owner with an assessed value of $125,000 will experience a municipal increase of $28.70 for the entire year.
Highlights From the 2021 Budget Include:
Garbage Bag Tag Program – cost for a single bag tag is now $3 up from $2. The increase was necessary to ensure that the roadside collection service’s price continues to be paid for by the users who use it. Self-generated Bag Tag revenue covers the cost of roadside collection, ensuring that this service has no tax levy impact. All previously purchased bag tags are valid for use.
Capital Budget Highlights Include:
$222,500 in equipment replacement
$1,364,000 in road-related work, including $700,000 for Skene Rd. and Jennison Rd., $105,000 for Crawford Drive, $100,000 for Goat Hill Road, $225,000 for Beaver Creek Road, $134,000 for Highway 7 Connecting Link, among others
$80,000 for the sand dome, salt shed repairs, and guide rail replacement program
$118,000 in bridge structure maintenance and design/repair work
$230,000 for equipment replacement and upgrades at the Water and Wastewater Treatment Facilities to ensure continuity of operations for providing clean drinking water to the community
$105,000 for a washroom facility at Booster Park
Over $85,000 in repairs and upgrades to the Medical Centre and Memorial Building
$40,150 of upgrades at the Legion Park Baseball Diamond in partnership with Provincial and Federal funding
Planning for future investment with $200,000 of transfer to reserves for the coming fire truck and plow truck replacement.
We understand the frustration with the streamed audio. Staff contacted the supplier of the equipment, and the issue is speculated to be a bandwidth problem. This is information that the Municipality didn’t have during testing, and we share in the public’s frustration with the audio quality. If the bandwidth issue is the source of the problem, we should rectify it quickly. We appreciate your patience as we work to improve the hybrid meeting delivery.
We would also like to remind the public that we are working on providing a hybrid meeting to enhance the service level. Conducting in-person meetings while streaming live is a new challenge for many municipalities, including Marmora and Lake.
The April 6 Council meeting will be held virtually to have enough time to resolve the hybrid audio issues.