Council to hold January meetings on paving costs, 2026 budget

By Ian MacKay

Two meetings are scheduled in January to discuss how to pay for new paving and to work on the town’s 2026 budget.

“Rosetown’s not getting anywhere in paving,” new councillor John Kadler complained Dec. 15, during his first meeting as a member of council.

Councillors, at their Dec. 1 meeting, accepted two petitions in which enough property owners on Fortune Crescent and Little Flower Avenue voted out local improvement projects intended to rebuild their streets.

Kadler said he would have voted against the Little Flower project had he lived there, “but it’s got to be done,” while Mayor Trevor Hay and councillor Art Garrett said they would have supported the plans.

“We’ve had many discussions” about paying for street rebuilding strictly through property taxes, and the town would have “to raise everyone’s taxes $500 or $700 a year,” Hay said. “Is that feasible? I think you’d have a lot more people complaining about paying that.”

Money the town designated for its 50 per cent share of both projects “is still sitting there,” councillor Jan Coffey-Olson said.

“I think it improves property value,” Garrett said, drawing agreement, and noting that more paved streets make “Rosetown a nice place to visit and stay.”

Councillor Kimiko Otterspoor suggested “a large conversation to figure out how we’re going to move this forward,” and council agreed to meet Jan. 6. Otterspoor later suggested that paving projects in other communities “cost less than ours do.”

“Rosetown has challenging ground,” Hay noted.

Staff will try to have representatives from the town’s engineering firm attend the meeting. Kadler also wondered how towns of similar size in the region pay for their paving projects.

“Approximately half the cost of Kindersley’s current infrastructure work is financed by revenue generated from the annual per-household infrastructure/road work levy of $300,” a message on that town’s website says. “The town budgets a matching amount as much as the mill rate will allow.”

Councillors also learned that Rosetown Housing Authority residences turned a small profit in 2025. The authority will keep the town’s share — almost $73, or five per cent of the profit — until 2026, to add to or subtract from future earnings or losses.

“They have a few units that are empty,” said interim chief administrator Amanda Bors, explaining she was told the units need “major repairs” worth at least $30,000 each. She also expressed surprise that the authority had a surplus “with the amount that they have empty.”