Cypress County predicts a small surplus in 2018

By Tim Kalinowski on December 6, 2017.

Medicine Hat News

Cypress County should post a modest surplus of about $72,500 in the 2018 fiscal year.

Cypress County’s director of corporate services John Belanger tabled the county’s proposed 2018 budget at Tuesday’s council meeting, and ran through the numbers with councillors.

The county’s budget for 2018 will be about $32.5 million for operations, equipment and capital transfers, about $6 million less than what was spent in 2017. This drop was mainly due to having fewer major infrastructure projects slated for the coming year. The county did major sewer and water infrastructure upgrades and street repaving in the hamlets of Suffield and Irvine in 2017.

Included in the county’s budget for 2018, is $525,000 for gravelling 5.6 km of Township Road 162 near Schuler, $330,000 for gravelling 4.2 km of Range Road 40 (The Josephburg Trail) and $200,000 for gravelling 1.6 km of Eagle Butte Road in the Thelma area.

Another previously proposed project, gravelling 1.6 km of Range Road 14 at a cost of $180,000 in the Graburn area, was pulled off the five-year road plan by council on Tuesday after consultations with local landowners.

The hamlet of Seven Persons will also receive nearly $2 million in funding for street work in 2018.

The county has more than $87 million in reserve funds, according to the budget documents.