The 2012 Grey Sauble Conservation authority budget is up 400 thousand dollars from 2011, to 3.2 million dollars.
Chair Dick Hibma tells Bayshore Broadcasting News most of the hike is for maintenance work on the Mill Dam in Owen Sound and the Haines Dam in Clarksburg.
Hibma says those repairs will cost 300 thousand dollars, with half of that paid for by the province and the rest coming from reserve funds.
The levy charged to area municipalities is just over 1.1 million dollars with the average hike six per cent — it varies from municipality to municipality based on assessment changes each year.
Meaford is facing the biggest hike at nine per cent or about 12,500 dollars.
Dick Hibma says at the low end of the proposed levy hikes is the Town of Blue Mountains at two per cent.
His biggest concern going forward is the lack of reserve funds.
The Chair of the Conservation Authority says they have had to use reserve funds for the last few years and it has fallen from 1.25 million dollars to under 900 thousand dollars now.
Hibma says over the next five years, they will need to boost the municipal levy to help restore the reserve fund.
