De Salaberry budget has $6.2 million for St Malo arena upgrades

The $8.47-million RM of De Salaberry budget has millions dedicated to the future of recreation and infrastructure for growth in its communities.

Council at its budget meeting April 22 did pass a lower mill rate for rural and St Malo LUD residents to temper the tax increase with average assessments up 24 percent, but taxes are still going to be higher this year.

Rural residents will see an average 17.8 percent increase with a mill rate of 8.975. St Malo LUD homeowners will see an average 14 percent increase with a mill rate of 11.724. The RM is collecting over $550,000 more in municipal taxes this year, though spending is slightly down with less money coming out of reserves.

The De Salaberry Recreation Facility gets the biggest investment to finish phase two of its renovations. Work started last fall on the $8.7-million phase, so the budget only has $6.2 million dedicated to the arena this year. The hope is to get most of the work done by this December.

Phase two is the biggest of the three, with a new ice surface, ice plant building, upgrades to the viewing area, meeting rooms, washrooms, mechanical rooms and concession.

The RM borrowed $4 million last year over 15 years for the arena. A local improvement tax to pay it off will be offset a bit by the RM’s plan to dedicate money from the Canada Community Building Fund for the first five years.

The 10 years after that have residents sharing the $439,178.50 per year cost. A home valued at $275,556 would pay $207.58 per year for the arena in years six to 15 without population growth.

And that growth right now is stymied by full lagoons in St Malo and Otterburne. The budget has solutions for that.

The RM is working with the Manitoba Water Services Board on designing a lagoon for St Malo. Shovels to dig a new hole for the communities’ toilets are hoped to arrive by next year.

Otterburne and Providence University, which has its own lagoon, have joined the Red-Seine-Rat Wastewater Cooperative to pipe their lagoon effluent to a new plant being built north of Niverville.

The Otterburne utility fees will in future years go up as operating expenditures go up, but not until the $235-million facility is built. The plan is to have it built by the end of 2026 and running before the end of 2028. The RM utility has $170,000 in the budget going to the RSR Wastewater Co-op coming out of reserves.

De Salaberry is joined in the co-op by Niverville, Hanover, Tache, Ritchot, and La Broquerie.

Reeve Darrel Cure said the cost was prohibitive to hook the much more distant St Malo lagoon up to RSR.

“It was about $20 million to hook up St Malo so that was kind of a lot of cash,” said Cure after the budget presentation.

The other infrastructure priority the reeve wanted to point out was the $960,000 going to rural roads and bridges.

Improvements will be seen on Rat River Road, Scout Road, Road 27N, and other roads that are getting culvert upgrades, gravel and calcium.

The other more costly capital investments include $243,000 for the newly leased baseball diamond area near St Malo grotto, $215,000 for RM office renovations, $170,000 for public works machinery replacement, $50,000 for drainage in the Otterburne area and Can-mart drain, and $50,000 towards a tank and jaws of life for the St Pierre Fire Department.

A homeowner pays their mill rate on 45 percent of their assessment, so if their home was worth $222,222 last year their portion was $100,000 and they paid $944 in rural areas and $1,276 in St Malo. That same home on average went up in provincially assessed value 24 percent or to $275,556, according to De Salaberry’s budget presentation. That means that home’s property tax portion is now $124,000, and pays $1,112 in rural areas and $1,454 in St Malo.