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Council asked to approve Rec Hub study, property tax increase

Monday's meeting of City Council will happen virtually at 7 p.m.
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File photo. Kris Svela for ElliotLakeToday

Elliot Lake City Council.will be asked to approve a $75,000 expenditure Monday night to pay for a site study on land at 151 Ontario Ave. the city purchased to be the home for Elliot Lake's planned Recreation Hub.

The City applied in late 2019 for the $38 million Recreation and Wellness Hub to the provincial and federal funding program. A decision is expected by late this summer or early fall (2020).

In his report to Council, Elliot Lake CAO Daniel Gagnon wrote, "In order to continue to move the project forward (to minimize delays in detailed design tendering and eventual construction) some engineering/design and modest site prep work is needed now.

"Tulloch Engineering is already on retainer as the city’s consulting engineers. They have an established relationship with IDEA architects in Sault Ste. Marie.”

"The City uses Tulloch for civil engineering and project management on municipal projects. The hub is a municipal project and some of the work is directly related to municipal servicing/survey work," Gagnon added. "The city does not have a contractual relationship with IDEA architects. But the scope of work involves some work from both firms working closely off and on to refine the footprint on the site. In a way, this report is recommending sole sourcing the work to IDEA (and to use our existing relationship for Tulloch)."

Gagnon wrote, that a "chicken or the egg scenario" has arisen.

"Some very preliminary design work should be done to ensure that the relatively costly geo-tech drilling is done at a logical building footprint area," he added. "Otherwise there is a risk of wasting funds on samples in areas more suited to parking and landscaping than building foundations, etc."

"The $75,000 scope of work can be done in the coming weeks and will position the project in a good place to be able to tender the detailed design as soon as the funding picture clarifies later this year. This will only improve the project’s definition as shovel ready when the time the funders are awarding projects," Gagnon concluded.

At the same time, recommendations for Elliot Lake's 2020 Operational Budget and this year's city property tax increase are up for council's consideration on Monday night.

"Attached and summarized is an overview of the operating base budget. It represents an increase of 4.16 per cent over 2019. The final changes to arrive at this amount were recommended at the council meeting on April 27, 2020 and at the in-camera council meeting held on May 1, 2020. Please note that this is a year over year budget increase and does not represent 4.16 per cent tax increase," City Treasurer Amy Sonnenberg wrote.

"Key areas of change include:

  • Cancellation of expenses associated with the annual street dance in the amount of $21,500
  • Inclusion of the budgeted 2020 expenses associated with the annual drag races in preparation for a comeback in 2021 in the amount of $17,750
  • Expansion to include one full time By-law Officer in the amount of net budget increase $58,030.

"The general municipal tax rate shows an overall increase of approximately 1.2 per cent. For the Urban Surcharge Area, the increase represents an increase of approximately 1.4 per cent. When the education tax rate is considered, the overall increase to taxation is approximately 1 per cent," Sonnenberg concluded

Monday night's council meeting will be live-streamed on the city website and televised on Eastlink Cable 10 next Monday (May 11) at 7 pm. Councillors will be connected to the meeting electronically via Zoom. As usual during the pandemic period, people with questions or comments for the meeting are asked to send them via email to City Clerk Natalie Bray by 12 noon Monday at [email protected]. There will be no attendance in City Hall Council.chambers.



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About the Author: Brent Sleightholm

As a reporter, Brent has covered everything from amateur and professional sports, to politics, entertainment, police and courts, to human interest stories and government issues
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