County Passes Interim Budget

Financial Notes County of St Paul

An interim operating and capital budget for the County of St Paul was presented at the December 13 council meeting.

The estimated numbers for 2017 are as follows:

This budget includes an increase in funding from capital reserve of $150,625, which will help cover an increase of over $8,000 for the St. Paul Fire Retainer and a cost of about $40,000 for the Mallaig lagoon. The county library board funding has been set at $118,954.82, the same amount as was provided to the library board in 2016. It represents a per capita cost of $19.29.

$226,000 has been approved for the purchase of a 2018 Western Star roll off truck to be used by Environmental Waste.

During the 2016 budgeting process, Council had allocated $55,000 for Elk Point Recreation grants, to be divided equally between the CG Baker Arena, AG Ross Arena, and the curling rink.  Since $11,500 was paid in March to help the curling rink with repairs to the ice plant, the Elk Point grant funding was: CG Baker Arena $18,334; AG Ross Arena $18,333; Elk Point Curling Club $6,833.

A donation of $500 for the MS Walk in May 2017 was approved.

Wage Adjustments

The County of St. Paul recognizes that there is not always the need to have roads graded from November 1 to April 30 of each year other than for snow removal.  However, Council has agreed to provide a guarantee of wage to grader operators to ensure they are available to work when required during this period. Grader operators will be guaranteed 2.5 hours of stand-by pay for each weekday during winter months, and will be compensated 1.5 times their regular pay for overtime if their services are required for more than 8 hours a day.

County Council also agreed to paid time off in lieu of overtime pay for all non-supervisory employees.