Owen Sound council has officially approved its 2008 budget. The tax increase for city residents is 4.87 percent. However, factoring in the city’s portion of the municipal tax bill, along with the county and education taxes, the overall tax increase drops down to 3 percent. Mayor Ruth Lovell says its an acceptable budget, adding city staff and council worked hard on it. She says recent funding announcements from the province have allowed the city to proceed with more capital projects. The city received 1.16 million dollars from the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative for the 4th street west and 2nd avenue east project. Director of Operations John Johnston says the other 332 thousand dollars the city received from the province for roads and bridges will be put to good use. He says some of the funds will go towards the 7th avenue east retaining wall reconstruction project which will cost 300 thousand dollars. Johnston says the city is also proceeding with the engineering of the 10th avenue east road reconstruction project at a cost of 750 thousand dollars. He adds more money will also be put into road resurfacing and for curb replacement. Johnston says the city is also proceeding with the Chinese bridge at Harrison Park and the first phase of electrical upgrades at the park as well. The city’s 2008 budget total’s almost 40 million dollars.
