Vernon city employees may not get everything they want. Staff asked for early approval for $7.9 million in capital works Thursday but council deferred a decision so that request can be considered in relation to the entire budget process. “There may be projects that we don’t agree with,” said Coun. Catherine Lord. “We will go through it and see if these are priorities for council.” The eight projects identified for early budget approval included $1 million for phase three of the Polson greenway on 29th Street, $1.8 million for a sewer trunk line on Tronson Road, $85,000 for the Delcliffe Road lake access site and $999,000 for road and utility improvements for 25th Avenue. One of the other projects is $600,000 to retrofit the current library building for city offices. Also on Thursday, council was provided an update on Vernon’s transportation network. “Our roads are deteriorating faster than we can keep them up,” said Shirley Koenig, operations manager. There are 550 lane-kilometres of road within the community. “That’s like going from here to Calgary,” said Koenig, adding that 260 lane-kilometres need crack sealing, 42 require overlay and 30 lane-kilometres need total reconstruction. “There is always insufficient funds to keep up.” For crack sealing, $300,000 would be ideal while the budget request is $100,000 ($30,000 was spent in 2011). Staff has asked for $1 million for overlay work while $2.5 million would be ideal and $400,000 was spent last year. If approved, Coun. Patrick Nicol hopes some of the projects will occur in residential neighbourhoods. “To the individuals paying the bills, those are a high priority in front of their homes,” he said. Coun. Bob Spiers believes the city must be focused when designating limited resources. “Rehabilitation (of roads) is the most important item in the budget. It has to be rehab over new projects,” he said. The draft 2012 budget equates to a 4.69 per cent tax increase, but council has a tax hike range of zero to 2.3 per cent.
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