Five new pickups and a chipper draw scrutiny at Malahide

Malahide councillors want to know more about the age and mileage on five township pickup trucks before authorizing their replacement this year.

And, Councillor Mark Widner told a budget committee meeting on Monday, Feb. 1, he wanted similar information for a wood chipper used by the works department, proposed for replacement at a cost of $50,000.

He and his colleagues made their first formal foray into 2016 budget deliberations that night. A draft budget prepared by township officials called for total spending of $12.3-million in 2016, up from $11.8-million in 2015.

More importantly to local property owners, the total raised through the township’s tax levy would have risen from $6.956-million to $7.527-million, an increase of $560,000 or 9.1 percent.

By the end of the first budget meeting, though, the proposed levy increase had already been trimmed to about six percent.

For the full details of the meeting, click here.