South Frontenac Council to look at laundry list of Capital Projects this week

Jeff Green | Jan 19, 2022

As the South Frontenac budget gets closer to completion, Council considered a draft Capital Budget as proposed by staff at their Committee of the Whole Meeting on Tuesday evening (January 18)

The cost of each proposed capital expenditure was included in the summary document, but instead of a total cost, and the document says that the “The items presented in the 2022 Capital Budget are in line with the targeted annual capital budget as set out in the Township’s 10 year long range financial plan.”

All told, the draft capital budget comes to $9.8 million

Among the major expenditures are some that have already been approved in principle by council, such as $175,000 for Project Design and Management Consulting in regards to the Seniors and Affordable Housing Project in Verona.

The budget includes over $7million in road and bridge work, with the largest expenditures being 4km of reconstruction on Westport Road for $1million and Bellrock Road ($970,000), and Lower Round Lake Road ($822,000), the Bellrock bridge ($750,00) Buck Bay Road bridge ($270,000) and a major culvert replacement on Opinicon Road ($450,00)

The budget includes $600,000 for surface treatment on 29.5 kilometres of road, including sections of Wilmer, Arena Boundary, First Lake, Ritchie, Boyce, Bedford, Canoe Lake, Davidson, Freeman, and Camden Portland Boundary Roads.

There is $436,000 in the budget for fire equipment replacement, including 3 pickup trucks ($225,000) and a 16’ aluminium boat ($75,000). The Public Works fleet budget includes 2 tandem trucks ($600,000) as well as one half ton ($42,500) and one three quarter ton truck ($69,000) for a total of $711,500.

The Recreation budget includes $350,000 for the McMullen – Verona Court project. There is $290,000 in the draft budget for a cover for the multi-use pad and $15,000 for an ice rink at Harrowsmith Centennial Park. For Gerald Ball Park, there is an allocation of $25,000 for volleyball courts and $40,000 for a dog park.

The recreation budget also includes $25,000 for software and $25,000 for consulting around developing a user-fee and facility allocation policy.

Only about $3 million out of the nearly $10 million capital budget is slated to be financed through direct taxation in 2022. Another $3.5 million comes from reserve funds.

One major project that is scheduled for this year that does not appear in the budget is the $3.5 million replacement of Firehall 8 on Battersea Road, which was budgeted in 2021 and is being carried over the 2022.