Council budget mtg1 The initial budget proposal out of Engineering and Public Works is a 7.74% increase over last years figures, which gives that department roughly $10-million to work with.

Chair Tanya Vrebosch says the number is high because the Merrick Landfill is being re-tendered at a higher than expected rate.

As well, there were some items that could have brought the figures down, but Vrebosch says they would not have been popular with the public. Those included eliminating garbage pickup for multi-residential users, and eliminating all or part of the sidewalk winter maintenance.

Vrebosch says they also wanted to see more money put into winter maintenance, so they added an extra $100,000.

Vrebosch says “the winter maintenance budget was reduced by approximately $36,000 from last year and we only have $210,000 in reserves, so the Vice-Chair and I felt comfortable putting that amount in.”

This will still have to be approved at the council level.