Mayor Andrew Jakubeit said the proposed light canopy will be discussed at Penticton city council’s next regular meeting.
“We are just sort of figuring out. It will come up by Feb. 15, for sure,” said Jakubeit.
At their Dec. 9 meeting, council approved an additional $125,000 for the cost of a $398,000 light canopy as part of the downtown revitalization project. A month later, councillors began suggesting they should reconsider the whole light canopy idea, but the topic has been delayed from meeting to meeting.
Jakubeit said the delay comes from needing more information regarding how removing the light canopy would change other aspects of the revitalization plan and the capital projects budget, which was approved on Nov. 30.
“I think no one would have a problem saying let’s take the light canopy off the table, that is not going to be part of the downtown revitalization. But no one has the comfort level yet to say that $500,000 is better spent here, or better spent there,” said Jakubeit. “Do we leave that $500,000 in the capital budget, we will just reclassify it from light canopy to potential facility upgrades?”
Jakubeit said going that route would allow council to better define its direction in coming months as more information about the city’s aging facilities comes back to the table.
“I think the majority of who voted for it initially have all echoed saying we need to revisit that,” said Jakubeit. “It is a ‘nice to have,’ but not a must-have. There are others priorities that we need to be focusing our money on for facilities and other infrastructure.”
The Downtown Revitalization Committee has an upcoming meeting and city staff plans to bring an update on the revitalization plans to council at their Feb. 15 regular council meeting. But discussion of the light canopy may come earlier than that, at a special meeting to give further consideration to the 2016 capital budget, scheduled for 10 a.m. on Feb. 9.
It’s taken some extra time and consideration this year, but it looks like council is ready to give the 2016 financial plan its seal of approval.
Council started work on the budget in Dec. 2015, with the capital budget balanced but facing a projected $1.9-million deficit on the operating budget for 2016. The amount of increase in the taxes required to balance the budget has varied as city council worked through it, trimming where they could, but the final figure recommended by budget analyst Deb Clipperton ended up settling at 5.5 per cent.
Though council decided at the start of the process to not draw from surplus to balance the budget, as they have in previous years, Coun. Helena Konanz suggest it be considered again, in light of the high tax increase.
The idea was quickly dismissed.
“There are surplus funds available, but like any organization it is your rainy day funds, and you put your organization at a greater risk moving forward by reducing those surplus funds,” said chief financial officer Colin Fisher.