Aquatics Budget Floated
By 250 News
Monday, February 09, 2009 05:16 PM
Prince George, B.C. – The Aquatics division of the Community Services department at Prince George City hall is predicting an overall increase in expenditures of about $140 thousand dollars. The bulk of the increase is the result of expected higher energy costs, and increases in wages and benefits.
The annual budget projects there will be an revenues of $1.4 million and total expenditures of $3.6 million.
The Aquatic Centre is carrying debt. There is still $4.4 million dollars outstanding and payments are about $545 thousand a year. The debt was spread over 20 years, and there are ten years still to go.
Councilor Cameron Stolz says having taken his children to the Aquatic Centre recently he found the admission fee of about $12 dollars was a great value “It has to be one of the single cheapest things you can do with your kids other than taking a walk in the wilderness.”
The Aquatic Centre managers are wary of changing rates as some people budget to use the facilities three times a week and if the rates go up too much, they may drop back to using the facilities just twice a week.
The Aquatic Centre has witnessed a 22% increase in use from 2007 to 2008.
Councilor Garth Frizzell wanted to know what would happen if the budget had to be cut by 10%. “Our budget (entire Community Services Department) is about $13 million dollars and about $8 million of it is for salaries and wages" says Community Services Manager Tom Madden “ So if you were to take 10% across the board, you would have to see if you were going to achieve that through increasing fees, or reducing days and hours of operation. A few of those things would have to occur in order for us to reach that kind of level of service.”
Frizzell says no one is here to cut budgets off at the knees, “Certainly when I look at my household budget, I am not going to cut back on the food I feed my children or the diapers we need, but, aside from the necessary things, is there wiggle room ?”
Madden says certainly in all budgets items can be reduced, but he wouldn’t want to go on record at this point on what those reductions might be.
Councilor Don Bassermann says the Community Services department provide services that are "significant factors is this community's ability to attract and retain for the future." He advised his Council Colleagues to keep that in mind when the time comes to make an overall decision on budget items.
Previous Story - Next Story
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Del.icio.usReturn to Home
A simple, reasonable question from an elected offical.
"So if you were to take 10% across the board, you would have to see if you were going to achieve that through increasing fees, or reducing days and hours of operation. A few of those things would have to occur in order for us to reach that kind of level of service.”
A convoluted, incoherent answer from a six figure career bureaucrat (one of dozens at City Hall).
Then, to cap it off:
'Madden says certainly in all budgets items can be reduced, but he wouldn’t want to go on record at this point on what those reductions might be.'
When will someone on Council have the guts to stand up to the 'senior' fossils on City staff and demand some straight answers?
These are budget deliberations for Christ's sake.