Frequent snowstorms forced Orangeville to overspend its snow removal budget. By the end of April, the service cost $646,000 — $32,000 more than planned for 2008.
“It’s not unusual to be top-loaded, but it is unusual to be over for the whole entire year in one fell swoop,” town treasurer Wayne Church says of snow clearing.
Over the last five years, an average of 73 per cent of the allocated funds were spent before the arrival of spring, he notes. This year, however, 105 per cent has already been spent.
Finding a way to cover the overrun and pay to clear snow later in the year shouldn’t be hard to do, suggests Church.
The town has two major positives working in its favour, he says: the 2007 surplus, which hasn’t been finalized, will likely come in around $185,000, and a group planning to purchase the town’s shares in the Orangeville-Brampton Railway has agreed to cover property taxes for a couple years while the sale is finalized.
The Town of Orangeville is the rail line’s sole shareholder. Property taxes cost the town about $500,000 annually.
“We hope that it’s not going to be bad,” Church says of winter’s wrath later this year.
Because of snow clearing costs, 29.9 per cent of the public works budget for the year was spent in the first three months.
As for the rest of first-quarter spending, everything appears to be on track, agree Church and Coun. Sylvia Bradley, who chairs the budget committee.
“I was really pleased with the results so far,” Bradley tells The Banner.
“I think everybody is very financially conscious,” she says of the department heads. “They really seem very diligent.”
By the end of March, Orangeville sent 20.4 per cent of its net operating budget and 25.5 per cent of all non-tax revenues had been received.
Success in sticking to the budget early in the year bodes well for the months still to come, Church suggests.
“That, to me, says we’re doing ok,” he says.