Well it’s official! Rothesay’s draft budget calls for a tax increase from $1.21 to 1.22 per 100 dollars of assessed property value and there will be a sewer rate increase of nearly 5%.
Rothesay ratepayers will pay more to flush!
Given what he had to work with, (a big hangover from the spending of the last Council,) Finance Chair, Councillor Grant Brenan, hasn’t done a bad job of bringing some spending discipline to Council. Kudos to Grant Brenan, his business experience is a welcome addition to council.
Most of Rothesay’s residents probably won’t take to the streets for the extra $150 to $300 in total over four years that Rothesay residents will pay in increased tax bills. If, however, this council makes a habit of coming back to the taxpayers’ well on too regular a basis, then this just might become an election issue in 2019.
A positive development worth noting is the apparent disappearance of the Rothesay arena/field-house project from Council’s wish list of capital projects. Let’s hope that boondoggle is gone for good and some commercial redevelopment of the vacant land can bring revenue back into town coffers.
Having said that there doesn’t seem to be any money allocated to fix up the Rothesay Arena dressing rooms and that’s a pity. Instead Council is pushing ahead with spending more than $1.1 m for a pedestrian walkway over or under route 111 apparently to join up the Hillside Trail with the Wells Trail.
I say apparently because even with a dedicated pedestrian crossing over or under route 111, pedestrians coming from the Hillside Trail will still have to cross over Grove Ave. and Campbell Dr. and then compete with fast-moving traffic entering and exiting the MacKay Highway via three or more on/off-ramps. That is, before they get to the million dollar crosswalk. Clearly this is going to end up costing millions more to install additional crosswalks and flashing lights as the safety issues become clear.
It is ironic that instead of being booked as a recreation expense, this pedestrian crossing project is being charged up to motorists via the transportation budget. That knowledge will do little to ease motorists’ frustration on their daily commute into Saint John. I expect, if asked, Rothesay motorists might have some ideas of their own about where 1.1 million dollars could be better spent…
Stay tuned!