Budget Talks Continue In Tillsonburg

Thursday, 23 January 2020 08:13

The Capital budget includes plenty of projects ranging from bridge work to installing a new water slide at Lake Lisgar.

TILLSONBURG - The Town of Tillsonburg will present a final draft budget and business plan to Council on Monday night.

This will look at all operational and capital projects for 2020. Mayor Stephen Molnar says a lot of the work in the capital projects have already been completed.

"A great deal of our capital items have already received pre-budget approval. Both our engineer and operational teams are already writing applications for third party support, the engineering processes have started and the FPS' for various construction projects are already being written and being sent to the marketplace, where we ultimately are in a beneficial position to get good pricing, because we are out early into the private market."

Molnar says they have a number of Capital projects he is looking forward to, including one at Lake Lisa.

"They range from bridge work in cooperation with the Kings Highway connecting link, part of Highway 19, as it is known internally Broadway and Oxford Street in the Town of Tillsonburg, so that is a large project that will be taking place this year. The engineering has already been completed, so is the capitalization and actual work for Concession Street West, which is a major project, supported through community, provincial and federal dollars, along with the Town will be done this year and that is safety, road widening and greater accessibility in a new growth area that includes an Elementary school. Council has recently, during the budget deliberation, given pre-budget approval for the replacement of the slide at Lake Lisgar water park."

As for taxation, the current budget calls for an increase that would be under $60/household for Operational costs (1.86% or $30) and Asset Management (Capital) Reserves contributions inclusive. This does not take into account any tax ratio shifts that may be amended at the County level in the coming weeks.

This is final draft plan budget, so nothing would be finalized until given approval from council. The budget will be posted online later today in the agenda for Monday's meeting.