In 2015, a referendum vote, initiated by RM ratepayers, was held due to concerns with the site location of Raymore. The result of a vote bound the council from proceeding with a shop for 3 years. On September 24, 2021, a petition for a referendum was received from RM ratepayers that feel the shop should not be built at all and the money should be put towards improving roads in the municipality.
The existing shop (approx. 32’ x 50”) located in Semans was built in the 1950s, making it at least 60 years old. This shop would require a complete overhaul, renovation, and expansion to bring it up to current Occupational Health and Safety standards. This shop would serve well for a warm storage building in the winter for a grader and the shop and yard would continue to be utilized.
In September 2020, a motion was made by Council to build a new RM shop. Council then began to budget and save for the construction of a new shop. $400k was saved over the course of five years for the build. After the three years expired as a result of the 2015 referendum, Council revisited the motion and proceeded to work with Driftstone Consulting to move forward with a new shop build. The new shop will be 70’x100’x20’ with 75’ of shop area with 3 bays and 25’ consisting of an office for the Foreman, training room for public works, washrooms and utility room. This shop will be built modestly to fit the RM’s needs but in compliance with the standards of a commercial building. Based on Driftstone’s recommendation, a motion was made by Council to choose Raymore as the new shop location and pay $1.00 for the land and sign a purchase agreement. I want to emphasize that Driftstone was employed by Council in an effort to be fair and transparent to all ratepayers.
We do not have a final cost on what a new shop will cost the RM as we have not sent out tenders for construction yet. We project the new shop to cost between $1 million and $1.5 million. Financing will be required for a period of 5 years, preferably at a locked in interest rate. We have $400,000.00 in reserve which will be applied to the shop cost. We have also included an estimated $250,000.00/year for 5 years in our capital budget and the estimated annual interest on the loan is included in our operating budget for $25,000.00/year for 5 years.
RM BUDGET – The R.M. of Mount Hope No. 279 is healthy financially and are at no present risk of running a deficit. We ensure our expenses will be covered by the revenues expected to be generated that year and ensure we will continue to be in a surplus status. As we sit right now, a surplus is expected again this year, however the amount of a surplus will be unknown until all expenses have been paid and revenues received.
Our 2021 operating budget includes a projected revenue of $3,869,724.70. This includes the total tax revenue of $2,415,044.96 and the remainder is made up of a revenue sharing grant of $703,175.00, gas tax grant of $35,490.00 at the time of budget which has been topped up for 2021 to $31,886.55, CTP Corridor grant $97,276.00, bank interest revenue plus multiple other miscellaneous revenue items.
The total expenses for the 2021 budget year were a projected $3,856,183.40. This includes $963,000.00 for employee wages (includes benefits, payroll benefits, worker’s comp fees, and MEPP contributions), $268,000.00 for gravel expenses, and $260,000.00 for fuel and oil expenses. $120,000 was planned to be used for contracting out 2 division to be custom gravelled but due to our tender being sent out too late in the year, approximately $33,000.00 was spent on a private contractor to assist in all divisions. The remainder of the expenses include operational expenses including between $1,000 - $5,000 is budgeted for each piece of equipment for both parts and repairs, utilities for all buildings, filters, machine blades, legal fees, and amortization of all equipment and buildings.
As you can see, running an RM as large as the RM of Mount Hope No. 279 is not cheap. We have 21 employees, 36 pieces of equipment (including vehicles, heavy equipment, semi’s, trailers, tractors, mowers, attachments for multiple pieces of equipment) which all require maintenance, parts, safety inspections and licensing on the vehicles every year. We also complete our own gravelling programs, multiple construction projects are completed by our construction crew every season, plus we grade and mow approximately 700 miles.
Something that has been mentioned as a concern is the mill rate in Mount Hope being too high. We have also been compared to the surrounding RM’s and the mill rates charged. These RM’s have a much smaller land base, fewer roads to gravel, grade and mow. A lot of the surrounding RM’s have their roads custom gravelled and may not complete as many construction projects that Mount Hope does every year. Comparison to an RM that is similar in size as Mount Hope would provide a more realistic examination of the services provided vs. the mill rate charged.
Council and Administration are looking into the possibility of providing a quarterly newsletter which will include financial information and an update on the RM.
PRIORITY ROAD PROJECTS - The Road Committee meets every year with the priority road projects that are received from each division councillor. The projects are then prioritized for each division, and we determine which projects will be presented to Council for approval to be completed that year. Once the projects are completed, the total cost of the project is capitalized to that specific section of road. Not all projects submitted are approved. The following summarizes how much money was in spent in each division for the past three years:
EQUIPMENT - the RM has four maintenance graders and one construction grader. When the construction grader is not being used on construction projects, it is used as additional maintenance grader. One new grader is purchased annually and has a five-year warranty. The warranty includes service technician calls. Each grader is rotated out after five years of service.
EMPLOYEE WAGES - the following is a comparison of a few of the RM’s from the Provincial Division 5, showing the percentage of budgets for employee salaries.
RATEPAYER MEETINGS - the last ratepayers mtg held in February 2018, approximately 100 attended. This is about 20% out of 500+ ratepayers in municipality.
In November 2022, councillor seats in divisions 2 ,4, and 6 are up for election, as well as the Reeve’s seat. I have previously advised council that I am retiring from farming in 2022 and that my wife Jose and I are relocating to her hometown of Outlook. I hope there will be ratepayers that will take an interest in taking charge of their division to run for these positions.
- Submitted by Ashley Greenshields
- Idea’s and opinions expressed here are those of the author. Printed as-is.
