OLDS — Administrative staff are proposing to make several changes to the town's operating budget.
That budget came up for ratification when town council met on April 11.
The two biggest factors in the changes are retroactive pay for Olds RCMP officers and an assessment of the Sportsplex.
Under a new collective agreement between the federal government and the National Police Federation, regular RCMP service members are receiving pay increases retroactive to 2017.
Town officials received an invoice for that cost a couple of weeks ago. It came in at $270,831.
In anticipation of that bill, they earlier set up a $200,000 RCMP retro pay reserve. That money will now go toward paying that bill. The remaining $70,831 will come from the general operating reserve.
A total of $120,000 is set aside for the assessment of the Sportsplex. Plans call for that cost to be covered by taking that money out of the Destination Olds Collective Fund.
In an email, chief administrative officer Brent Williams said in essence, the assessment is mostly "being proposed to council to start a conversation on the future of the Sportsplex. It is 43 years old, and the town will soon face the decision to refurbish the existing facility or beginning planning for a new facility.
"No decision can be made until we have data and understand the current state of the Sportsplex’s infrastructure, which includes the foundation, roof, ice plants, and most importantly the condition of the lines under the three concrete surfaces (main ice, auxiliary ice, curling ice)," he wrote.
"This engineering study will provide an estimate on how much it will cost to refurbish this building in order to get another 30 – 40 years of life out of it. And should that cost be prohibitive versus the expected result, that’s when we would need to open the conversation around a new facility."
Another $40,000 is slated to be spent at the Sportsplex for brine pressure testing.
A total of $45,000 is set aside to cover costs to improve railway cantilevers, a project that was unable to be completed last year.
Two other things slated to be done last year were service level communication workshop sessions and replacements of plaques. Staff have set aside $15,000 for each of those.
Another $5,000 is earmarked for weed control on the Rotary Athletic Park soccer fields.
Finance director Sheena Linderman noted that the Municipal Sustainability Initiative, which provides provincial money for municipal projects was doubled. That will bump up town revenue by $76,460.
It’s proposed that $12,540 be transferred from the tax stabilization reserve to ensure that the books balance.
