Taxes will be going up this year in Williams Lake.
Council unanimously approved Tuesday a 1.9% tax increase to address additional policing costs.
They also approved utilizing $1 million dollars in internal reserves to complete additional paving.
“Council had agreed to up our paving level,” says Councillor Ivan Bonnell.
“Generally we had spent roughly $950,000 every year for the past 3 years. This year they wished to increase that up to $2 million so we’ve entered into short-term borrowing with the water reserve fund.”
The City will repay the $1 million to the Water Fund in five equal annual installments of $200,000 over the period of 2019 to 2023. The City will also pay to the Fund annual interest in the amount equivalent to the interest that would have been earned on the amount used had it remained in the Water Fund.
“Generally we’re looking at Second Avenue North, Gibbon Street, Rose Street up in around that area for mill and fill and some water saddle replacements. Westridge Drive is also being looked at and we’re putting in a new 2 inch lift around Woodland Drive,” says Bonnell noting that they still limited with the funding and if the tenders come in too high they will have to scale it back to stay within the budget.
“We’ve cut costs without cutting services to the community, but the most important thing is that we’ve been able to grow our economy,” said Councillor Scott Nelson calling Williams Lake a community in transition.
“You just have to look at the Walmart commercial development-the walls are going up as we speak, the Lake City Ford development-that building is coming down and a new building is going up, we got a 39 unit multifamily development, we got a brand new pool, and of course we got a $150 million annoucnment on our hopsital.”
“A minor increase in taxation I think provides a good balance in the terms of direction that we want to go.”