Budget discussions continue for Vauxhall town council

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

With budget discussions still well underway at the Town of Vauxhall, capital equipment purchases have been approved by council.

During council’s regular meeting held on Feb. 18, councillors were able to view several items put forward for purchase from their capital budget in 2020.

“This year, with discussions with department heads, the requests this year are a pickup truck, a roadsand bin, a pipe bursting machine, a Zamboni room, a Case Farmall tractor, signage, a server, a handheld device, a garbage truck for residential and partial paving around the pool,” said Wendy Bergen, CFO for the Town of Vauxhall. “We did receive approval from last year’s MSI projects. The playground equipment, the street sweeper, the truck and trailer and the sidewalk replacements.”

With a request to purchase a new pickup truck, quotes for that unit have come in at $37,000.

“There is a single cab that should be traded off, that’s my suggestion, but that is council’s call to make,” explained CAO Cris Burns.

As far as other projects coming out of MSI/grant funding, the list included signage, a new server and a new handheld device.

Signage for around town was estimated at $5,000, the server was slated at $12,000 and the handheld was $7,300.

“We’ve been putting money away for it, we’re just not sure when to do it or how much life (the current server) has,” said Bergen when speaking about upgrading the town’s server.
The current server was installed in 2012 and based on conversations, they expected it to have a few more years of life.

The handheld device funding has also been saved up for over the last few years.

“We’ve been putting away money for three years now. We think we have that all covered,” said office manager Mindy Dunphy.

The rest of the items mentioned were due to be funded by grants and MSI for 2020.

One item that was required for purchase was a roadsand bin for $17,000.

Administration explained that the item was needed due to the town needing to keep up with regulations.

“That is to keep the sand contained in one area over at the public works shop,” said Bergen.

“There is a federal regulation in place that we weren’t able to follow. We’ve been using minimum sand,” added Burns.

The next capital purchase item was a pipe bursting machine for $42,700.

Pipe bursting is a trenches method of replacing buried pipelines (such as sewer, water, or natural gas pipes) without the need for a traditional construction trench.

“That is not a current want, that is planned for the future,” stated Burns. “It will save us some road repairs.”

An addition to the ice arena in the form of an expansion of the Zamboni room was quoted at $28,500.

“That is an add on to the back of the Zamboni area. I’d recommend that one simply because of the money we have spent on the Zamboni. I’ve sent it in twice for repairs,” explained Burns.

Public works requested a new Case Farmall 55c tractor estimated to cost $52,000.

“That’s a public works request. They have two tractors, they want to get rid of one before it has no value and they have one that has been repaired quite a few times that holds value but wants to upgrade before it becomes useless,” continued Burns.

A new garbage truck was also requested. Administration explained the current truck has seen several repairs over the years they have owned it and it is reaching the end of its life.

“When we bought the garbage trucks, were told they’d last for five to seven years if we’re lucky. Most last three to five years,” said Burns, who also stated they got it in late 2014 or early 2015. “We got it brand new, it was a demo but it was pretty much brand new.”

The estimated cost for a new truck was at $175,000.

The final project was paving near the pool area for $50,000.

“It would be everything from the corner of the pool and the road to the area wall,” said Burns.

“We would do that all in-house to save some money.”

A motion to approve all capital budget items was carried unanimously.

Coun. Jake Wiebe was absent from the meeting.

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