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City revisiting RCMP spending, capital projects

City council will take another crack at the year's budget Monday night when the group returns to hash out decisions held over from the December round of budget meetings.
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City council will take another crack at the year's budget Monday night when the group returns to hash out decisions held over from the December round of budget meetings.

This includes what to do about the Prince George RCMP's request for more officers and a pair of capital budget items.

Since he first made a presentation to the finance and audit committee in early November, Supt. Warren Brown has been direct with council about a lack of resources within the local police detachment.

"If the community is content with a very high crime rate here, I'm content providing the same quality of policing that I have been. But if we'd like to come down to a crime rate that I'd say is consistent with other communities in B.C. that are our size, I cannot do it with the present workforce I have," Brown said at a Dec. 14 finance and audit meeting.

That meeting resulted in the report on Monday's agenda, which outlines the budget impacts for having up to three RCMP members and one city employee added to the payroll.

If the city were to add one municipal employee and three RCMP members in 2016, it would cost $184,912 (0.21 per cent increase to the tax levy). If one municipal employee and two RCMP members were added, it would cost $131,426 (0.15 per cent increase to the tax levy).

During the Dec. 2 meeting, Coun. Jillian Merrick also asked for more information on two items in the capital plan slated for funding - a new picnic shelter at Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park and new video cameras and score clock display at CN Centre.

Merrick wanted to know the rationale for the costly projects, as she was attempting to free up money to put extra funds into the sidewalks budget.

Staff reports prepared for Monday night's meeting indicate that the $390,000 expense for the CN Centre display needs to happen as planned, but the picnic shelter's $400,000 cost can be put off.

Among the issues with the CN Centre's video score clock and camera system outlined in the report are failing pixels, screen losing picture brightness and sharpness and a failing LCD monitor on one of the cameras.

According to the report, the system - which consists of four full-colour video displays, four scoreboard displays, four illuminated advertising panels, two ceiling-installed cameras and two handheld cameras - was state of the art when it was installed in July 2007.

"Attempts to find replacements for the failing components have not been successful as manufacturers tend to stop producing the components when the technology evolves," the report said.

"In addition, the limitations of the existing system and its poor condition effectively preclude the introduction of any new applications and content."

The primary user of the system is the Prince George Cougars WHL team and the licence agreement with the club says they shall have use of the video score clock.

Picnic shelters were removed from Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park in the summer of 2014 after they had fallen into disrepair. The wooden shelters were installed in the early 1980s and their removal had a budget of $175,000. The city made between $3,000 and $4,000 per year from rent revenue before they were removed.

"Since the Dec. 2 budget meeting, city staff has reviewed the project rationale and now recommend a different approach that would defer expenditures to 2017," said a staff report.

Putting off their replacement could give the city time to invite the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation to give input on the design and possible integration of the shelter with a memorial monument to which the province has contributed $25,000.

The total $400,000 price tag was the cost for construction from a 2007 concept that included washroom facilities and an expanded area. Funding scheduled for this year in the amount of $40,000 would have covered design and archeological work.