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By Curtis Galbraith

Beaverlodge

Flood damage contributes to tax increase in Beaverlodge

May 2, 2019 | 1:49 PM

Old infrastructure plus a need to repair flood damage means a tax increase for Town of Beaverlodge ratepayers.

The increase will be five percent. That works out to $10.69 more a month or $128.26 a year based on an assessment of $300,000.

Mayor Gary Rycroft says many things were impacted.

“Roads and sewer lines. There was actually ground shifting on some of our water lines we had to deal with.”

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He adds a lot of flood mitigation work is included.

“We just can’t accept this happening again. We have to make sure we deal with the water if we do get a heavy rain and heavy runoffs. We have to make sure that we deal with that properly. There’s some infrastructure, culverts and ditching. Some of it is going to be long-term planning and some of it, we just can’t wait. We have to do it.”

Rycroft says $2-million worth of work is needed and not all of it can be done this year.

“Some of that’s mitigation, some of that’s damage, some of that is water lines (that) were pushed around from the weight of the water. Last fall, we had a pretty big water break. We chased it a long ways. The only thing that could have happened is that the ground shifted and pulled those pipes apart.”

Rycroft adds he did not want a tax increase “any more than anyone else, but that’s the way it is.”

Town council approved a balanced 2019 budget Monday.

Rycroft says the Town did not borrow any money or cut any services.