Belleville council has set its 2024 capital budget.
As Quinte News has reported about 80% of the budget, or $55 million, is earmarked for new and upgraded water and sewer infrastructure and the reconstruction of all of Bridge Street West to allow for more housing to be built in the city’s west end.
The project is known as the Avonlough Pumping Station and Conveyance System and Mayor Neil Ellis says the work is necessary to meet the demand for housing.
“When you look at the long term planning this has been on the books for 8 to 10 years. Belleville’s growing and when you look at the stats we were one of the fastest growing cities in the last census and the population was up around six or seven thousand people. You know people are interested in coming here.”
In order to get going on the multi-year project staff deferred some 120 other projects, many of which have been delayed in previous years. Treasurer Brandon Ferguson said they were confident that none of the deferred projects were so urgent that they couldn’t be delayed.
The city will pay for the Avonlough Road/Bridge Street West project by various means including long term debt, both taxation and user fee, totalling $29.4 million of its $55 million cost.
Belleville’s overall debt is forecast to climb from $131 million in 2024 to a peak of $190 million in 2027 and then trending down to $168 million in 2029.
In those years the city annual debt servicing costs will run between six and 10 percent of “own source” revenue (taxation,user fees) which is below the city’s self-imposed 12 percent limit and well below the province’s twenty-five percent limit.
See the detail on the Avonlough Pumping Station and Conveyance System project here.
See all of the projects in the capital budget minus last minute additions here.
Council passed the $70.4 million budget as presented but did add 5 more projects to the 30 already proposed by staff.
First Councillor Tyler Allsopp received support for the installation of playground equipment as part of the ongoing upgrades to Hillcrest Park.
“People in that neighborhood really miss the playground equipment. If we don’t put it in next year they’ll have been 4 summers without it.”
That project will cost an extra $300,000.
Next Councillor Paul Carr received support for 3 additional projects. One was for the installation of crossing arms and lights at railway crossings on Mitchell Road and Elmwood Drive.
“This will bring those crossings into line with all of the others in the city. And along with allowing the trains to stop whistling at those crossings it will really improve public safety” Carr told council. That project is estimated to cost around $350,000.
Next Carr received support for a $100,000 investment to design an extension of the active recreation trail under Highway 401 on Highway 62 to connect to the Cannifton recreation trail.
“People are always asking about a trail over Highway 401 to the north. It’s important not only for quality of life but for safety. If we at least have a design in place we can go for funding opportunities to build the extension as opportunities come up”.
Cost to build such a trail extension are estimated to be $3.5 to $6 million.
Finally council voted in favour of Carr’s suggestion that a design be made for a sidewalk on Ashley Street from Ducette Road to Foxboro Public School at a cost of $100,000.
Carr said the work was worthy in that many families and kids walked that stretch on a busy street and a sidewalk would help keep them safe from vehicular traffic.
The final addition was proposed by Councillor Garnet Thompson. That involved a sidewalk on one side of Village Drive which is just west of Sidney Street in the Parkdale neighborhood.
“A lot of residents are worried about speeding on that long straight street and they’ve told us loud and clear they don’t want speed bumps, that a sidewalk will work to make it safe”, said Thompson.
Councillor Tyler Allsopp said since a Community Safety Zone was put in place on Sidney Street more traffic was using Village Drive as an alternative north-south route and with that came more speeding concerns.
The project is estimated to cost $500,000. When asked by Mayor Neil Ellis if existing city staff could handle the project this year Director of Engineering and Development Services Stephen Ashton said it was hard to tell but it would be possible that more staff might be necessary as existing staff is already playing catch up on projects.
“If we need more staff or contract people we’ll bring that request to operating budget discussions” which will occur in February.
There will be public consultation on the Village Drive sidewalk project and there’s the possibility that property acquisition could be required although Councillor Carr doubted it would be necessary.
All in all the additional projects added close to $1.5 million to the capital budget bringing its total to nearly $72 million.
City of Belleville staff prepare for 2024 capital budget discussions Wednesday December 6 2023. (Photo: Quinte News)
