On Monday, council voted unanimously to approve the draft 2008 budget as it stands, which will trigger a 6.46 per cent increase in the town’s tax rate.

A home assessed at $175,000 will now be taxed $706.28, an increase of $42.97 over 2007.

“No council wants to come in over six per cent,” said Mayor Don Coates. “But I still think it’s prudent when you factor in the increased cost of doing business, coupled with the major projects we’re undertaking this year, like the ball diamonds and the skateboard park.”

Although the budget was approved during a meeting of the town’s administration and finance committee, all councillors were allowed to attend and voice their concerns.

A significant factor in the final tabulations was last week’s announcement of $2.8 million from the province for the construction of a new baseball facility.

Treasurer Andy Nelan outlined some of the more significant projects in the 2008 budget. Among them are the skateboard park, more programs at the sportsplex, upgrades to the library and visitor’s centre, and the development of a community-based strategic plan.

Nelan said the original version of the draft budget came in at 8.9 per cent, and significant cutting had to be done to bring the tax rate down. Changes include taking $8,000 from the library’s centennial budget, $7,000 from the special events strategy, $5,000 from the fire department reserves and $3,000 from website development.

The revised budget also includes $40,000 taken from reserves to pay for having two treasurers at the same time.

Nelan also announced the budget for an audio/visual system in the council chambers has been cut from $25,000 to $20,000.

Councillor Scott Young questioned whether enough money is being put into the project, and cited Brace­bridge Memorial Arena as an example of a poor audio system.

“The arena proves that you can spend a lot on audio equipment and still not hear a word that’s being said,” he said. “If we skimp it could be even worse.”

Several councillors said they are willing to extend the project out over several years to make more money available for the best system possible, but committee chair Barry Young said the project should be considered under this year’s budget.

“It’s been a failure of this council that the general public cannot hear properly in this room,” said Young. “I’m disappointed. I guess we’ll continue to ask the public to come and not hear us.”

A highly contentious issue in the past, the subject of integrated pest management (IPM) was again discussed.

At the urging of councillor Scott Young, council agreed to take money from an environmental reserve to pay for IPM at Memorial Park.

“It’s the healthy approach and it treats the disease rather than the symptom,” said Young.

Mayor Don Coates disagreed with the inclusion, and asserted that tests conducted by the town in previous years had proven that IPM is not the cheapest or most effective method of pest control.

Both councillors Scott Young and Patti Thompson were eager to argue the point, but chair Barry Young stifled any further debate on the topic. Nonetheless, Scott Young brought the subject up later in the meeting, when he countered that the tests did not utilize the complete IPM program.

Deputy mayor Steve Clement said he wanted $1,000 cut from the budget, which had been added during the last public works meeting to pay for an extra daily cleaning for the washrooms at Kelvin Grove Park.

“That washroom is cleaned twice a day, now we’re going to pay them an extra $1,000 for doing a poor job,” said Clement.

Scott Young said the extra cleaning is in response to complaints from the public, and the committee agreed to keep the extra cleaning, and monitor whether it makes a difference.

Council will have a chance to voice any final concerns during next Wednesday’s regular council meeting.