BATTLEFORD – The Town of Battleford's finances are staying in the black with the release of the January to the end of September financial statement.
Finance manager Tetiana Polishchuk presented the third quarter report at this week's council meeting.
The year to date, ending Sept. 30, show $7.6 million in revenue has been recognized, which is 79 per cent of the forecast amount.
"The overall operating revenue is on target, and there are no issues at the point," Polishchuk said in her report.
She noted that similar to 2023, there were no land sales to date for the period in 2024.
For expenses, a total of $4.6 million has been spent for the period, or 67 per cent of the forecast amount.
Expenses are slightly higher in the General Government services category compared to 2023 due to a payment of $85,000 to SUMASSURE Insurance, but Polishchuk says it's "still in line with the 2024 budget."
Expenses were lower in 2024 for the Planning and Development services category since the town didn't fill its opening for a planner position. However, the town was able to contract out the service to Northbound Planning company.
Overall, for expenses, there were "no other significant variances," Polishchuk said.
Mayor Ames Leslie was pleased with the progress so far this year in the latest report.
"It's close to watch coming up to the end [of the year]," he said. "There are some good take-aways. There are some things to watch. Are we going to get all our grants back in place that have been budgeted to come in?"
He said the taxation collection is increasing, which means the town doesn't have as much taxation still to collect at this time of year.
"The finance teams has done a good job to get people to come in and pay their outstanding taxes," Leslie said. "That is a benefit."
He noted only 67 per cent of the expenses forecast have been spent for the period, but he knows that snow removal costs will soon make an impact as winter approaches.
"We do know that we are going into that expensive time of year," he said. "Three or four big blizzards can chew up a budget pretty quickly. We've seen other municipalities fall victim of that. It's definitely something we have to focus on to make sure that we keep an eye on the expenses… We need to make sure we're not spending anything foolishly, and come in under budget."
As far as capital projects go, Leslie is glad to see the sidewalk improvements that were completed on the main street in the town.
"That was a pretty big undertaking to be done," he said.
The town's lagoons have also been refurbished, which was another important project to get finished. The work is almost done at this point.
The mayor noted that the 25 Street sewer project that was originally planned for this year has now been postponed to next year instead.
