Enterprise expected to meet territorial budget deadline
Mayor praises efforts of interim SAO
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 24, 2014
ENTERPRISE
The council of the Hamlet of Enterprise will be voting March 24 on budgets for the coming fiscal year.
That may sound routine, but there had been some concern the hamlet might not make the March 31 deadline for an operation and maintenance (O&M) budget and a capital budget for the start of the fiscal year on April 1.
"I'm probably more shocked than happy, to be honest," said Mayor John Leskiw II. "I know how much there is to do in a budget, and working it all out and everything."
It was a challenge to create the budgets because of recent changes at the hamlet, including the departure of its former senior administrative officer (SAO) on Feb. 7 and the arrival of John McKee as an interim SAO on March 3.
"The amount of work that John did is phenomenal, and I'm very seriously doubting that somebody with less experience would've been able to get to this point," said Leskiw.
On Feb. 12, a co-management agreement was also announced between the hamlet and the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) to ensure the orderly management of the community, after months of disagreement and dysfunction.
Leskiw noted part of the agreement with MACA was that the hamlet's budgets had to be done by the end of this month.
"I very, very, very seriously doubted that was going to happen," he said. "Mr. McKee dug in. He probably overworked himself."
For his part, McKee noted the mayor and council also put a lot of effort into the proposed budgets.
"Everybody stepped up to bat and worked hard, and it's done," he said.
Prior to coming to Enterprise on a three-month assignment, McKee was SAO with the Hamlet of Fort Liard for close to 20 years.
Leskiw noted Melinda Lenoir, the hamlet's financial officer, also did a lot of work in preparing the O&M budget, allowing McKee to focus primarily on the capital budget and tweak the O&M budget.
The mayor pointed to a number of highlights in the proposed capital budget, including the replacement of some hamlet vehicles, expanding the maintenance garage, upgrades to the fire department, constructing a small house for the SAO because of a shortage of accommodations in the community, and building onto the municipal offices.
"There will probably be tweaking," he said. "Of course, there always is as time goes on, but for the most part we've got it set up."
Leskiw said there had previously been a lot in the hamlet's plans, and it was a little bit unrealistic.
After discussions with McKee, the expectations were revamped to be more affordable.
For example, the mayor noted the council had been looking at constructing a new administration building, but that has been changed to considering adding a couple of offices into the existing building.
"We're looking at doing something like that and it will probably be a quarter of the cost, even less, rather than doing a whole new building," he said, noting that will also reduce the expense in coming years for operation and maintenance.
McKee said the coming fiscal year's O&M budget is pretty straightforward to cover municipal operations, noting it will include $78,000 in new funding from the Department of Health and Social Services for a wellness program.
"That's a significant addition," he said.
Overall, the O&M budget includes $1.195 million in spending.
The exact amount of capital spending in fiscal year 2014-2015 was still being determined as of March 20.
