By Chad Ingram
Published Nov. 24 2016
Mishaps and unforeseen expenditures have added up to more than $160000 in un-budgeted expenses for Algonquin Highlands in 2016.
“We have had a bit of a difficult year in terms of some mostly emergent issues” Reeve Carol Moffatt said during a Nov. 21 meeting.
The septic tank at the municipal office needed to be replaced after it was damaged during construction at the site this summer that replacement costing nearly $22000. The cost of removal of mould at the Stanhope Firefighters’ Community Hall cost nearly $40000 more than anticipated. The well at the Dorset public works yard is being decommissioned due to high sodium levels and a new one drilled that process likely to cost more than $20000 by the time it’s done. There was also an $11000 overage on a new deck at the Stanhope Municipal Airport as well as $20000 for the replacement of the septic system there.
Other smaller expenditures included soil testing at the McClintock septage lagoon a billboard along Highway 35 and snowguarding for public works garages.
There was no running water at the Stanhope Firefighters’ Community Hall last week as work was being done on the well there. A new well may have to be drilled at that site as well.
“As soon as we started the water it shut back down again” chief administrative officer Angie Bird told councillors at last week’s meeting.
“This is the second time this has happened this year. The well-drillers are flushing it out. We know that there’s high iron.”
Total the un-budgeted expenses add up to more than $160500 an estimate which could be conservative with some of the expenditures for ongoing work not yet known.
A report from the treasurer showed that some un-budgeted revenues could help offset these unanticipated costs.
Those revenues include nearly $20000 in supplementary taxes nearly $70000 in shoreline road allowance sales and another $70000 in legal fees payments from Todd Bros. Contracting Limited.
Earlier this year a judge sided with the township in a lawsuit from the contracting company over the cancellation of a runway project at the airport.
