Stuartburn budget focuses on roads and growth

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This article was published 07/06/2024 (327 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Roads all over southern Manitoba are suffering for a mild winter that had frost bubbling up as the thermometres dipped and jumped around the freezing mark. Stuartburn’s $2.5-million budget aims to fix as much as it could while also investing more in its gravel roads.

“Last year was challenging, this year’s even worse. That’s one of our priorities,” said Reeve Michelle Gawronsky.

The tax rate went half a mill or three percent to 17.015.

Spending on transportation services is actually down slightly compared to last year, but that is because work on the Prawda bridge is wrapped up. The RM is spending $844,170 on roads, culverts, mowing, brushing and the wages and other costs that come with it.

“Our roads are a big one, to actually expand and purchase more gravel. We don’t want to do band-aids on the roads, we want to actually fix the roads, and what is that going to take… and how many roads can we do at a time and still be able to maintain roads for everyone else in the RM,” said Gawronsky.

Better roads would be beneficial if the RM’s plan to review its bylaws and make it easier to grow its population.

“We’ve had a number of requests from people who want to move into the community, so we’re doing a review on subdividing properties and where do we want to subdivide; and how can we make it economically feasible for folks that are moving into the community or are present ratepayers that want to subdivide.

“There are certain bylaws that actually inhibit people from doing it, so we are doing a review on where things are at and is it still making sense,” explained Gawronsky.

She said most of the interest in residential growth is around Vita.

“We’ve got a number of properties that people are moving out to. They don’t want to be right in the community but very close surrounding the community. So we’ve had a number of request, people that have bought, there are approaches being put in.

“We’ve had quite a number of folks that have come to us saying ‘OK look, we’d like to subdivide now.’”

Some are returning to the community they grew up in, reversing the trend of young people and families attracted like moths to the big city lights. Gawronsky gave the example of a farmer with four kids who all want to live in the area, but need the RM to allow him to subdivide his 100-year-old property so they can build their own homes.

“As people are trying to leave the city, they’re coming to where it’s green and lush, and we are it,” exclaimed Gawronsky.

More people means more services are needed. Gawronsky said a new doctor had just been hired full-time to serve in Vita, and two first-year medical students got a meet and greet with Stuartburn, Piney and Emerson-Franklin May 29. The reeve explained how this was a benefit for the whole region.

“If our hospital is up and running and our emergency room is up and running and we’ve got doctors, we’re not sitting in Steinbach taking a spot that somebody living in Steinbach needs,” said Gawronsky, who added that she was working with Steinbach and surrounding RMs to put forward a resolution that calls for Vita medical services to be fully up and running.

One other thing that needs upgrading in the next few years is the lagoon.

Gawronsky said as of right now, Stuartburn is not a part of the Red-Seine-Rat Wastewater Cooperative that is building a huge $190-million wastewater facility to service Southeast residents from Tache, Niverville, Hanover, Ritchot, and potentially others who may decide to join later.

Stuartburn is spending $30,000 on a lagoon expansion study to see how much it would cost the RM. Its five-year capital program, which is treated by municipalities as a reminder or wishlist of things they would like to have in the next few years, has a lagoon expansion penciled in for 2027 at a cost of $2 million

The biggest capital purchase this year is a new fire pumper to replace an aging one. The RM kept its debt sheet clean, using reserves of $183,750 and a provincial grant to buy the $ 700,000 pumper.

Council held its budget public hearing and passed the budget on May 25.