(file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

HOPE AND THE FUTURE

Hope and the Future: a challenging year but city still pursuing goals

Dec 31, 2020 | 11:27 AM

The COVID-19 pandemic makes 2020 a year many may prefer to forget, but there is hope for the future. We’ve decided to make that the focus of our series of end-of-year stories.

“Hopefully, we are going to have a good year,” City of North Battleford Mayor David Gillan said on looking ahead to 2021. “We’re going to have this COVID in our rearview mirror hopefully. But it still takes time of course.”

The past year has been a productive one for the city, despite the challenges. A new mayor and council were elected in November, and the proposed budget for 2021 was adopted in December, all under the shadow of the pandemic.

Gillan said with the positive news of vaccines being rolled out, the city staff hope “come spring time we will be in a lot better place than we are today.”

Council approved a one per cent property tax increase to benefit the city’s capital fund in the 2021 budget, keeping residents’ financial situations in mind due to the pandemic, to try to reduce some of the burden on taxpayers.

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“I think it’s a reasonable budget… We have kept utilities at no increase, and UPAR [rates] at no increase. So it’s a small property tax increase,” Gillan said. “It’s just to keep the city moving forward because our costs do rise in the city, and we are trying to keep ahead of rising costs. One per cent is the minimum we pretty much need every year to keep that in check.”

Despite losing significant revenue from temporary facility closures and restrictions, the city managed to find $2 million in operational efficiencies in the past two years to help its bottom line for the 2021 budget.

“I think the city is taking good measures during the pandemic to limit cost, to reduce cost, so that has really had a positive benefit,” Gillan said.

The city is still moving ahead with its many projects planned for the new year.

New radio-frequency water metres will be installed throughout the municipality to improve efficiency and accuracy.

“It will be exciting information and an exciting new service for the public,” Gillan said.

The city also expects to work on a large Underground Pipeline and Asphalt Replacement (UPAR) project on 102 St. in the downtown area.

In addition, the city has plans in place for the ongoing Primary Sanitary Sewer Trunk Upgrade, a large multi-year initiative that is expected to continue to 2023.

“There are a lot of things happening in the city, and in parallel to trying to get rid of the COVID [situation], and getting people back to normal, or some close to normality in 2021,” Gillan said.

A big challenge in 2020 has been the impact on the city’s recreational facilities being temporarily closed for a large part of the year, and now open but only to a limited capacity. The Credit Union CUplex Battlefords CO-OP Aquatic Centre and the NationsWEST Field House shut its doors in March due to the pandemic. The Aquatic Centre did not re-open until August, while the Field House re-opened in September, both with restrictions.

“As the COVID numbers go down, these restrictions hopefully will get less and less,” Gillan said. “Then hopefully we will get back to a normal operation of our recreational facilities.”

If all goes well, the city’s ball fields, soccer pitches, and other venues will all be at a normal level again eventually.

“That is my hope,” Gillan said. “That we can really knock down these COVID numbers before summer gets here, and hopefully our summer recreation is reasonably close to normal as we used to know it before.”

As the restrictions reduce, Gillan said there may be an opportunity for many of the clubs for youth and adults in the city to finally start to function again properly as well. Many organizations can’t run their sports, cultural or social activities right now due to the province’s precautions.

“It will hopefully all improve,” Gillan said. “But obviously it all starts with the COVID numbers. That has got a lot to do obviously with the vaccines that are coming too. So the more good news we have on that front, the more good news we’ll have on the municipal front.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW