Town allocates $61,000 to offset arena budget shortfall

Written By Paula Brown

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Shelburne is applying some of its funding relating to COVID-19 to help offset the budget shortfall for the local arena.

Shelburne Council, during their meeting on April 26, approved allocating $61,100 of the 2020 COVID-19 Safe Restart Funding for their share of the 2021 Centre Dufferin Recreation Complex (CDRC) budget. 

“When we did the 2021 budget we discussed how COVID-19 has affected recreation, and we knew that the CDRC would come forward with a budget that had a lot of COVID related costs, and they did,” said Carey Holmes, director of financial services and treasurer for the town. 

In 2020, Town staff recommended putting $100,000 of the $175,400 funding from the Safe Re-start Agreement Phase 1 into reserves at the year end to assist with offsetting unknown 2021 costs. 

According to the quarterly financial report, the Town's portion of the 2021 CDRC budget re-ceived in March is $301, 825. This included an additional levy of $150,000 related specifically to COVID-19 implications, with the Town's share being $93,000. 

“Because we estimated a higher budget in 2021 we don't need to utilize the full COVID-19 funding of $93,000 because we are collecting from the ratepayers the extra that we hadn't budgeted,” said Holmes. “At this point to cover the 2021 budget for the CDRC we would only need to utilize 61,100 out of the 100,000 that we put into the reserve.”  

The Town's adopted budget for 2021 had to be changed because of anticipated reduced reve-nues and increased expenses related to COVID-19. 

Within the adopted 2021 operating budget, the Town had estimated a 19 per cent increase to cover costs for the CDRC for a total of $240,725. With the budget for the Town's portion com-ing in at $301,825, there is a budget shortfall of $61,100. 

Holmes added that the CDRC is anticipated to experience additional costs associated with COVID-19 throughout the year, and recommends at the end of 2021 that unused COVID funding be placed in reserves again to assist with the 2022 budget. 

The Town of Shelburne has received three grants specifically related offsetting operation pres-sures due to COVID-19. In 2020 the town received $175,400 under the Safer Restart Agreement Phase 1, in January 2021 they were granted $35,000 through another Safe Restart Agreement and in March 2021 the Town was eligible to receive $112,225 through the 2021 Recovery Fund-ing for Municipalities program. This funding is scheduled to be received in two payments on May 1 and Nov. 1.