Town’s budget subcommittee proposes pumping an estimated $2 million into roads this year

There’s been a lot of talk about roads lately as council prepares its 2016 budget. Armed with a commissioned roads needs study in hand, here’s what’s being proposed by the budget subcommittee, pending council approval.

There are three road expenditure scenarios Huntsville’s budget subcommittee is considering for 2016. The likeliest and lowest expenditure, if approved by council, would see the municipality pump an estimated $2.1 million into roads this year (click here to see a breakdown of that $2.1 million budget).

The roads, or parts of these roads, that seem to be making the cut this year are: South Lancelot Road, Morgans Road, South Waseosa Lake Road, Fish Lake Road, Vernon Shores Avenue, Line Hill Road, Markles Road, Lynx Lake Road, West Court, North Drive, West Browns Road, Old Ferguson Road, Stephenson Road 12 East and West, Old Muskoka Road, South Drive, Parkside Drive, Forest Glen Road, Riverside Drive, Lawrence Avenue, Longs Lake Road, Grandview Drive, Rowanwood Road, Meadow Park Road, and Stephenson Road 1.

The subcommittee is proposing that the estimated $2 million being put into roads this year be increased by another $250,000 going forward each year.

“We’re pretty confident that’ll make a huge difference in particularly our rural road network, which has been left and neglected,” explained Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison.

He noted that asphalt is the most expensive way to rebuild a road surface. He said the Town is considering high float in many rural roads, which is cheaper.

“The big thing about that is you get a lot more road done for a lot less money but the problem with those is you have to make sure that the base is in decent shape and you have to make sure you install culverts properly.”

Aitchison said the budget subcommittee is also proposing increasing the public works operating budget. “Because we can have our staff doing a lot more of the brushing and ditching and replacing culverts and such that need to be done before you do any work on the surface,” he noted.

In terms of the priorities listed in the commissioned roads needs study, as presented to Huntsville’s General Committee on November 25, Aitchison pointed out that what’s listed as a priority in that report is not what council will necessarily go with.

“Fowlers Road comes up first and then it suggests we need to spend a million dollars on Madill Church Road from Highway 11 into our pit. That just doesn’t seem that bad to me and Jason (Krynicki, Director of Infrastructure) agreed,” said Aitchison. “Basically that’s what the software produces if you have all the money to spend in the world.”

The proposed roads to be tackled this year will be introduced at Huntsville’s General Committee meeting on December 14. It does not include Madill Church Road or Fowlers Road, but it does include a big area of Old Muskoka Road, according to Aitchison.

He said a public meeting will be held in January to explain the Town’s rationale with respect to its approach to roads, and which roads are being proposed to be tackled in 2016 and into the future.

We’re going to try and get as many people out to the Algonquin Theatre as possible and I’ll show them what our plan is going forward and we’ll make it public. We’ll make sure that people know what the plan is. I want to try and take the politics out of this as much as possible because our roads are bad enough. We just need to be making the investment where they need to be made, without politics.
Mayor Scott Aitchison

Depending on assessment growth and other variables, Huntsville’s budget subcommittee is currently looking at an estimated 4.5 to 5 per cent tax increase.

“With that, we’re going to spend another $400,000 on roads capital, plus we’re going to increase Public Works’ operating (budget) by another almost $300,000,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Karin Terziano, who sits on the Town’s budget subcommittee, said there are a number of factors putting pressure on Huntsville’s 2016 budget deliberations.

“I think we are going to see a more significant budget increase than I can remember ever seeing before, but it’s not due just to roads. We are going to make a commitment to roads, but a lot of it is due to the capital assets plan that we have to have now that is mandated by the Province, so that’s adding to our budget. And the $3 million debt that we inherited doesn’t help either,” she said, referring to debt racked up by the municipality during its 2009 – 2010 fiscal year.

“We’ve got the Stephenson Road Bridge, which is a shared bridge with Bracebridge and it’s over $2 million to replace that bridge and we may have no choice but to do it this year – so those things are significant,” she said.

Feature photo courtesy of Andrea Brown

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