ALBERTON
The Town of Alberton is seeing a $135,015 reduction in its annual serving grant and equalization payments from the provincial government, but Mayor Michael Murphy says that loss is more than offset by what Alberton saves by having the Department of Transportation, Infrastructure and Energy take responsibility for street maintenance.
The town started the process last summer of having the Province take over responsibility for all streets in Alberton, and that new arrangement went into effect Nov. 1.
The town had budgeted $283,982 for street and sidewalks costs for the 2017 calendar year. The bulk of that has already been spent. The provincial government, however has a different fiscal year and is scaling back the town’s serving grant and equalization payment by $11,251 per month from Nov. 1 until its March 31 fiscal year-end.
The town will maintain responsibility for a small amount of its streets and sidewalks budget, primarily maintenance of the town’s sidewalks which are duties municipal staff performs. Street maintenance and snow removal is now the responsibility of the province.
