Three items will be researched by staff and added to Armstrong’s 2017 budget deliberations.
Four projects were proposed by council but one – improving school district sports field maintenance – has been cancelled.
“A joint-use agreement exists between the school district and parks and recreation but excludes sports fields and ball diamonds,” said city administrator Melinda Stickney. “Reviewing the potential for expanding the agreement would require stakeholder engagement with user groups, parks and recreation and the school district.”
Added to the budget talks were the possibility of putting Christmas lights on three designated downtown trees; implementation of the city’s transportation landscape plan; and hosting a Canada 150 event.
“Staff will look at the costs associated with these and they will be brought to the budget table,” said Mayor Chris Pieper.
The Christmas lights project has the least expected impact to the city as a nominal budget is established each year for new lights. If approved, there would need to be a one-time increase to accommodate the purchase and installation of the new lights.
The landscape plan was not included in the 2016-2020 five-year financial plan due to its unknown details at the time, but an arbitrary amount of $35,000 was put into a 2017 reserve for the project.
“The overall impact is expected to be high,” said Stickney. “The impact details won’t be known until the plan is complete.”
The city is debating whether a Canada 150 event should be internally or externally hosted.
An externally hosted event would likely have less impact on the city’s finances than an internal event. An external event would also require a one-time grant-in-aid contribution to the organization hosting the event.
Details would depend on the scope of the planned event.