Slightly more than $2 million has been trimmed from the City's debt for capital projects.
During their Nov. 18 meeting, city council members voted unanimously in favour of bylaws to relinquish debt the City would otherwise have borrowed for four projects.
A $1.17-million upgrade of the Plaza Parkade comprised the biggest chunk. Although it survived an alternative approval process, the project was cancelled. However, a $2.8-million upgrading of the facility remains on the books as an unfunded project. The cost of operating and upgrading parkades are covered by users though an off-street parking levy
Debt on three other projects was relinquished because they were completed under budget.
A replacement of a culvert on Kelly Road North was finished at $428,791 less than estimated, an extension of the sanitary sewer line along Killarney, Sussex and Wildwood in the Hart Highlands came in $359,974 below budget and the replacement of the floor at Kin 3 ended up $55,356 less than anticipated.
City engineering and public works general manager Dave Dyer attributed said staff tries to make sure healthy contingencies are built into the cost estimates.
"A lot of times, when we get into a project, we're not having to use that contingency and on a number of these projects, we just got some good prices," Dyer said.
The 80 homes along the route of the sewer line extension are to pay the back the remaining $1.58 million over 20 years at a pace of $99,819 per year through an addition to their property tax bills under a local service area agreement.
