Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (May 31/02) - The Town of Inuvik is in the black thanks to some land sales and a healthy tax base.

Director of Finance Vince Schlachter says the town is in a strong financial position, with surpluses in most accounts, but most funds have already been allocated.

Schlachter reports $2.5 million in the bank, but says there are $4.5 million in capital projects to be completed this year.

"Right now, we're in a pretty healthy cash position, but that gets eaten up pretty fast," he said.

"There's about $1.2 in land development and another $2 million in utilidor upgrades planned for this summer."

The town has sold six parcels of land and has deposits on 10 more that Schlachter says will generate around $800,000 in land sales.

Last year's land sales were around $2.5 million, but he says that was an unusually busy year.

"We don't anticipate that we would have another year like last year," Schlachter said. "This year, we are looking at about $1.5 million. We might get more than that, because most of our sales happen during the summer months."

He says it's too early to tell if there will be money left at the end of the fiscal year, but town officials are hoping.

"At this point we can't predict a surplus," he said. "We assume there may be about a $150,000 surplus at year's end, but that's really uncertain at this point."

The town coffers will be further replenished this summer, with the final tax billing coming in late July.

"That's another huge influx of cash -- about $1 million more and plus we have our monthly block funding, so we're doing very well," he said.

Schlachter says the fiscal year looks to be a good one for the municipality.

"We are completely debt free and we'll be paying cash to our contractors this summer, without having to go to the bank to borrow," he said.

"It's a nice position to be in."