From big to small, Bradford has plenty of capital projects lined up for 2025 and beyond.
After a day-and-a-half of marathon budget deliberations, council approved a revised version of the draft 2025 budget on Nov. 13, which includes about $19.5 million in capital projects for the year.
One big-ticket item for 2025 involves about $2.8 million to continue the expansion of Joe Magani Park, including a sixth baseball diamond, a new washroom building, a driveway and a parking lot.
There’s also about $1.87 million earmarked for a new snow disposal site at the town’s wastewater treatment plant at 225 Dissette St., for which construction is expected to begin in 2025, according to Tony Desroches, director of infrastructure services.
One of the biggest changes from the draft budget was the deferral until 2026 of about $1.38 million originally budgeted for 2025 for an additional transit bus.
Town CAO Geoff McKnight explained a report is set to come before council next week with more details on the future of the transit program.
Some smaller additions for 2025 include:
- $175,000 to pave the multi-use trail along County Road 4 (Yonge Street)
- $165,000 to replace the gazebo at Rotary Park
- $147,000 for repairs at the leisure centre
- $120,000 to replace the play structure at Ron Simpson Memorial Park
- $110,000 for a new propane-powered Zamboni for the Bob Fallis Sports Centre
- $70,000 for new swings and a concrete pad at Lions Park
- $44,000 for 12 new loaner laptops and dispenser upgrades at the library
- $30,000 to upgrade lights and paint lines at the community centre to increase the number of indoor pickleball courts from four to six
- $25,000 to replace the aluminum siding and paint the exterior of the youth centre
Some ongoing projects for annual maintenance include:
- $3.97 million for resurfacing of urban and rural roads
- $1.62 million for routine road maintenance
- $545,700 to maintain bridges and culverts
- $350,000 to repair, replace, and inspect fences, gates, manholes, sanitary sewers and wet/dry well repairs
- $125,000 for inspection and testing of the wells supplying about 40 per cent of the town’s drinking water
The budget for road resurfacing was originally a little more than $3.7 million but increased by $265,000, which was freed up after Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferragine recommended transferring that same amount from automated speed enforcement revenues to cover the cost of intersection and street light improvements.
While better than nothing, that’s still a long way off the additional $1.69 million the town is reported to need to prevent roads from degrading.
About $1.9 million is also earmarked to replace existing light- and heavy-duty trucks for the transportation department, as well as about $987,000 for new vehicles, including a truck and trailer to bring a sidewalk plow to Bond Head, plus a new compaction truck, which can collect and compress more trash with fewer trips to unload at waste sites.
While the County of Simcoe provides waste collection services to Bradford residents, town staff are still responsible for collected bags or items piled or dumped along roadsides.
In response to questions about how much staff collect, Joe Coleman, manager of transportation, explained it isn’t weighed but the town spent about $90,000 in labour hours last year.
The budget also includes about $160.5 million worth of ongoing projects as part of a 10-year capital plan, which saw three main additions, including $23 million for the expansion of Line 8, with Desroches explaining the environmental assessment and design process is expected to begin again in early 2025.
Another $11 million is earmarked for expanding the town’s water supply by twining the existing water main from Innisfil to the John Fennell Reservoir, which itself is set for expansion.
A further $10 million is set to be added to the ongoing expansion of the wastewater treatment plant, and Desroches anticipates a water/wastewater master plan to be ready in early 2026.
Capital projects are funded from a number of sources such as grants, development charges and reserves. In particular, the capital replacement reserve helps fund replacement of infrastructure like roads and sewers, and is funded from the town’s special capital levy, which is set at 12 per cent for 2025 and expected to be almost $10.4 million.
In his report on the 2024 draft budget earlier this year, Ian Goodfellow, director of finance and treasurer, said that without increasing the rate at which the levy grows, the capital replacement reserve would have been depleted by 2025, but in the 2025 draft budget, the reserve is projected to have about $3.65 million to start the year and only get better from there.
After reviewing the data, Goodfellow explained to BradfordToday that’s largely thanks to favourable results providing the reserve with the following:
- 2023 roads maintenance and roads rehabilitation projects — $2.1 million
- 2023 bridge rehabilitation projects — $582,000
- transportation fleet replacement — $600,000
- closing out older 2022 projects — $425,000
Even better is the forecast for the 2025 year-end balance, in which the reserve was previously expect to have a $975,000 deficit but is now projected to have almost $5.13 million.
Goodfellow explained that “significant improvement” is mostly a combination of the $3.65-million starting point with two other positive developments.
An additional $1,965,000 is expected to be in the reserve, largely thanks to about $1.64 million from the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund helping cover the costs of the roads rehabilitation program, as well as the special capital levy raising about $400,000 more than expected.
As part of the strong-mayor system, the budget might not be fully approved for a few more weeks. More information about the ratification process, the draft operating budget and this year’s proposed property tax increase can be found in our coverage here.
