With two months left before council plans to begin strategizing about its 2012 budget, the Town of Irricana has yet to pass its 2011 capital budget.
After CAO Carol White resigned earlier in the year, progress on the document grinded to a halt. At the Aug. 15 council meeting, the capital budget was stalled again.
Councillor Frank Dusome lobbied hard to get budget talks underway at the meeting, saying enough time has been wasted.
“Be a council that’s willing to take initiative,” he said.
As part of the budget, Dusome made a motion to turn both floors of the Centennial Centre into the town’s new library. The motion met with opposition.
Councillor Lisa Constantini called Dusome’s motion “a bit premature” and suggested more information is needed. Councillor Larry Martin sided with Constantini.
“I think it’s a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction to come up with a proposal like that and vote on that tonight when there are so many other things that need to be talked about,” he said. “I want to know what we’re doing with everything. We’ve got more than one issue to deal with. We need a plan for everything.”
Only deputy mayor Andrew Carr voted in favour of Dusome’s motion that was defeated.
Martin then proposed to hold a meeting on Aug. 28 to discuss all items on the capital budget.
Carr was initially opposed to the meeting and only complied once the meeting was opened to the public.
“Considering this is a huge part of our budget — our capital budget — this should be a public meeting because this is a huge part of what were doing for the next three, five years,” he said.
The Town’s acting CAO Alvin Melton said there is no penalty as far as he knows if the budget isn’t passed by Dec. 31. However, without a budget, there can be no new funding opportunities.
“The longer we wait, the harder it is to get grant money,” he said. “It’s those big ticket things that we might not be able to get funding for.”
Those big-ticket items include repairs to the Centennial Centre, the community hall’s roof and recreation centre, which currently houses the library.
“Then there’s all the other infrastructure you don’t think about — roads, sewers, water lines,” said Melton.
The public meeting regarding the 2011 budget will be from 1 to 4 p.m., Aug. 28, at the Centennial Centre.
