Town of Coaldale sign. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Operating and capital plans approved

Coaldale investing heavily in infrastructure while not raising residential property taxes

Jan 29, 2020 | 11:32 AM

COALDALE, AB – The Town of Coaldale has laid out its plans for the next few years.

Back in December 2019, council approved the 2020/2022 Operating Budget, while voting to adopt the 2020-2024 Capital Plan on January 27, 2020.

“I think both these budgets promote and maintain council’s strategic priorities of fiscal responsibility,” says the Town of Coaldale’s Director of Corporate Services Kyle Beauchamp. “There’s a lot in these capital budgets that Coaldale should be excited about and we’ve been able to accomplish this while keeping taxes the same and not reducing services.”

In the Operating Budget, residential tax rates will be reduced by 0.63% in 2020. When accounting for a $120 recreation levy that was introduced in 2019 to fund the new multi-use recreation centre, Beauchamp says this should even things out for most homeowners, resulting in a net-zero change.

For non-residential property owners, they will pay two per cent more in property taxes, but this is to account for inflation and the expected increase in property values.

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Beauchamp tells LNN that they were able to establish these rates by finding savings elsewhere in their budgets.

The collective costs of salaries, wages, and benefits for municipal employees have been reduced by $12,230 (0.2%) while cutting $333,178 in “other operating expenditures.”

A few of the savings include changing the contracts for the town’s banking investment services, waste collection, and finding a new provider of employee benefits.

“Over the past year or so, town staff, we’ve been reviewing internal operations and identifying how we can gain more efficiencies, and part of that, we’ve reviewed historical spending and reviewing external contracts. Because of that, we’ve been able to reduce spending without reducing services.”

Back in November 2019, the provincial government announced that there would be no new photo radar in Alberta and that they will be taking a larger portion of speeding ticket fines. Because of these changes, the Town of Coaldale is expected to see $107,000 less in revenues, but Beauchamp says they are easily able to absorb this loss.

As for the Capital Plan, it details several infrastructure projects that are on the town’s books over the next five years, as well as the municipality’s reserve funds, debt projections, and what grant funding will be available through both the Federal Gas Tax Fund and the Municipal Sustainability Initiative.

40 projects, both minor and major in cost, are included in the plan, but we spoke to Beauchamp about the four most expensive ones. Altogether, approximately $55-million will be spent on capital infrastructure between 2020 and 2024.

In 2020-2021, the Town of Coaldale plans to spend $10-million on a new multi-use recreation facility, which is the largest item that is currently budgeted.

Chief Administrative Officer Kalen Hastings previously told us that they are looking to build a large facility with an upper track and a multi-use sports field, but they were still working on what else could be included in it.

Now, Beauchamp says they hope to have the conceptual design finished by the end of February, while construction could begin as early August or September 2020.

Over the next three years, $8,780,000 will be spent on upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant. Design and planning should occur later this year while construction likely will not begin until mid-to-late 2021.

More than $6.8-million is budgeted for work on the town’s Civic Square in 2020-2021, which, among other items, will see new town office space constructed over the next two years. Currently, the municipality is looking for contractors to do this work.

In 2020, Coaldale’s Main Street will undergo major renovations, including replacing deep utility infrastructure, replacing the road, installing sidewalks, and putting in new aesthetic elements. With a budget of $4.8-million, construction is expected to last from April to September.

Full details on the 2020-2022 Operating Budget can be found starting on page 28 of the December 16, 2019 Special Council Meeting agenda. The 2020-2024 Capital Plan is outlined on pages 12-18 on the January 27, 2020 Regular Council Meeting agenda.