Perth East Mayor Rhonda Ehgoetz anticipates that next year's budget will bring a small tax levy increase for ratepayers.
Looking back on this year, she says that 2024 was highlighted by a lot of new builds. She says council was pleased to see so much building and expansion across many sectors locally.
"The biggest thing is the building that's still going on. The farms are still expanding, we had some big dairy barns that went up. We still have some subdivisions on the go, so I guess that's the main thing that's been going on here in 2024," Ehgoetz shared.
Ehgoetz adds the municipality looks forward to even more of that next year, and there is one major project council will be undertaking to help that along.
"One thing that we are doing, we're putting a new water system into Shakespeare. So going forward, any new subdivisions or anyone wishing to build down there will hook into a municipal water system," Ehgoetz shared.
Ehgoetz adds that of course there will be road and infrastructure repairs. She also notes the budget is nearly done and there will likely be a small increase to the tax levy, but the numbers are still being finalized by council and staff.
"We've had two meetings so far and things are looking pretty good, we're kind of waiting now for the county and education to see where they're gonna go with their numbers. But things aren't looking too bad, and we're gonna have a small increase," said Ehgoetz.
The budget is a more challenging task with everything being so expensive these days, as Ehgoetz points out.
"A plow now with a truck is well over $400,000, for example. So our expenses keep going up and we try to have a good handle on our expenses in Perth East, and I think the people before us have done a great job and we're trying as a council now to keep it that way so that people can afford to live in Perth East," Ehgoetz concluded.