“We have to get started on this project,” said Councillor Ian Walker, during the December 9 review session on the draft 2021 municipal budget.

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Le conseil prépare son budget pour 2021

Councillor Walker noted that plans for expanding the capacity of the Plantagenet sewage lagoon and enhancing its operation have been a discussion topic for several past councils. He urged members of the current council to approve an allocation in the 2021 budget for an environmental assessment of the lagoon system as the first step towards an improvement project.

“I want this to be the council that stops studying it (lagoon enhancement),” said Councillor Walker, “and starts doing it.” During a later phone interview Mayor Stéphane Sarrazin expressed support for an assessment report on the Plantagenet lagoon as part of an overall plan to increase its capacity.

“This has been a problem for the last 30 years,” said Mayor Sarrazin. “We need to get more capacity for the Plantagenet lagoon. There is more demand now for people to build homes in Plantagenet.”

Council has a second budget review session scheduled for December 17. The review will be available for residents to watch through the township’s Facebook page.

Mayor Sarrazin noted that the focus of the December 9 and 17 sessions is to have council review the entire list of potential budget items from all municipal departments and then determine which ones rate the most urgent priority. Administration is still waiting for information from both provincial and senior governments about what municipal funding aid programs may be available in 2021 as part of its calculations for the final expense and revenue portions of next year’s township budget.

Those figures, and also information from the Municipal Provincial Assessment Corporation on local property assessments, will help determine both the final budget figures the final property tax increase.

“So far we’ve been proposing a two-per-cent tax rate,” said Mayor Sarrazin.

Approval of the final budget will take place in February.