The Town of Saugeen Shores will borrow money to pay for higher than expected costs for two recently completed projects.
A fundraising shortfall of over 398 thousand dollars for the Port Elgin Library addition has to be covered and over 1.4 million dollars of the 1.6 million spent on the Dr. Earl Health Centre still needs to be financed.
That’s led council to decide to borrow no more than 1.9 million dollars from the CIBC for a 20 year-term with a 10 year amortization.
With interest payments of over four percent factored in, it will cost an extra 145 thousand dollars a year to service the debt.
Vice Deputy Mayor Doug Gowanlock says he’d rather see the town use it’s borrowing ability, instead of financing the debt through reserves.
Councillor Diane Huber is not pleased and feels like she wasn’t provided with enough information back when the projects were underway.
Architect costs are one of the things blamed for the shortfall on the library.
Over 264 thousand dollars in donations was raised for the library.
Deputy Mayor Doug Freiburger says deciding to improve the facade of the former supermarket that became the health centre was why the cost of that project went up considerably.
Fundraising for the health centre brought in over 183 thousand dollars in donations.
Councillor Victoria Serda says the town needs to use a better strategy when it comes to deciding which projects are needed.
The library project was spurred on by the availability of a provincial grant of 731 thousand dollars.
Freiburger says when grant money becomes available, council and staff often have to act quickly.
Councillor Diane Huber hopes there is better communication and more information when project grants are applied for in the future.
She understands sometimes opportunities arise that need to be acted on quickly, but she thinks it’s important to have project priorities as well.