{"id":9585,"date":"2025-12-22T18:25:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T22:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9585"},"modified":"2025-12-23T11:26:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T15:26:53","slug":"queens-councillors-question-water-upgrades-long-term-debt-in-capital-budget-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/12\/22\/queens-councillors-question-water-upgrades-long-term-debt-in-capital-budget-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens councillors question water upgrades, long-term debt in capital budget talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton chaired the Dec. 19 special council meeting on the capital budget. (Region of Queens YouTube)<\/p><\/div>\n

Region of Queens councillors had some tough questions for senior staff on Friday afternoon as they pored over their five-year, $57-million capital budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elected officials were concerned about the timeline for water and sewer improvements in Liverpool as part of the $26-million Mount Pleasant extension.<\/span><\/p>\n

They also wanted to know more about projects like the South Queens Outdoor Pool and planned upgrades at the Astor Theatre. And there were concerns about the municipality\u2019s long-term debt.<\/span><\/p>\n

District 3 Coun. Courtney Wentzell returned to an issue he\u2019s brought up before about extending water and wastewater services to the Mount Pleasant area to connect two planned housing developments to the system. That project is supported with $10.7 million in provincial funding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the loss of treatable water and with us … hiking the water rates, and then going ahead and starting a project to send transmissible water up Mount Pleasant Street before you fix the issue down here on (the west side of) town, … it does not make sense to me, and it never will. 28\/29 before you fix the problem? No.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The region\u2019s current plan calls for $9.7 million in work to begin this coming year to run new water mains to the Mount Pleasant area and upgrade existing infrastructure en route. Work on other, older parts of the system is now scheduled to begin in 2028\/29. The end date to finish the overall project has been pushed\u00a0<\/span>to 2032\/2033, from the original finish date of 2028\/29.<\/span><\/p>\n

But with South Queens Water Utility reporting more than 60 per cent of its treated water lost through leaks in the system, Wentzell says he wants to see older pipes, like the lines and laterals from Roy Turner Road to Union Street, fixed first.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIsn’t this all one big project now?” Wentzell asked. <\/span><\/p>\n

“\u2029Isn’t this all just one project or is the Mount Pleasant exchange separate getting up to Dauphinee Farms than the rest of Liverpool? I’m lost. I’m trying to expedite and get the old infrastructure fixed before we start driving pressureless water up a hill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam Grant, the region\u2019s director of infrastructure, said the contracts are already awarded for the work to Mount Pleasant. And he said fixing one line won\u2019t solve all their water woes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn’t expect to see 60 per cent of it be in that one segment of line. As we know, it’s spread throughout the town. \u2029So if we accomplish 10 per cent, we should be satisfied. I don’t want to set false expectations that replacing that transmission main, it’s gonna save all of our beans that are falling out of our basket.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors asked staff to return in January with options to expedite upgrades to older water and sewer lines in Liverpool.<\/span><\/p>\n

District 6 Coun. Stewart Jenkins questioned Grant and Finance Director Joanne Veinotte about cost overruns at the $8-million South Queens Outdoor Pool.<\/span><\/p>\n

Veinotte said that in trying to keep the project on budget, some details were missed like the $150,000 wraparound concrete bleachers.<\/span><\/p>\n

“How can you miss $150,000 of cement bleachers?” Jenkins said. “I don’t understand it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Grant said many different departments rushed to finalize the pool design for tender. And some things were overlooked.<\/span><\/p>\n

CAO Willa Thorpe, who was not with the municipality when council approved the pool plan, said that won\u2019t happen again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“When we, as an organization, make hasty decisions on major projects, these are how items like this get missed,” she told councillors.<\/span><\/p>\n

“So if we were to explore a project of this magnitude again in future, staff will take a different approach.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Jenkins also wondered why the region is planning to spend about $5 million on heating, cooling and accessibility upgrades at the municipally owned Town Hall Arts and Cultural Centre, home of the Astor Theatre.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe we’re going to spend $5.4 million, when we have poverty, and we have leaking pipes, and we have everything else to spend money on, but we’re going to spend $5.4 million, for something that is not used by very many people in Queens County, and many of them have never been inside. So I think we should be considering that in our budget deliberations.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n

Other councillors said the municipality has put off necessary upgrades at the Astor for a while. They said the facility is used well now and it could be used more with a modern HVAC system. It\u2019s currently limited in what it can offer in warmer months because there\u2019s no air conditioning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors also asked staff for a list of how the $10.2-million accumulated surplus will be spent. If they approve the current capital plan, that surplus is projected to drop to $1.7 million by 2031.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And if they approve the proposed five-year capital plan, they\u2019d also be voting to rack up the region\u2019s long-term debt to $26 million by 2032.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton, who chaired the meeting because Mayor Scott Christian was away, said council is heading in the right direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

And she said residents can participate in the budget process by filling out a survey on the region\u2019s website here: <\/span>https:\/\/www.regionofqueens.com\/budget-engagement<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so you can say what’s working well, what’s not working well,” Charlton told QCCR. “Recognizing we have financial implications. we can’t do everything, but I think if we hear from people and there’s overarching themes or gaps and things that we’re missing, then it really positions council to make decisions about those items moving forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors will be back on Jan. 13 to vote on the capital budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/capitalbudgettalksdec2225.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Region of Queens councillors had some tough questions for senior staff on Friday afternoon as they pored over their five-year, $57-million capital budget. Elected officials were concerned about the timeline for water and sewer improvements in Liverpool as part of the $26-million Mount Pleasant extension. They also wanted to know more about projects like the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[958,1245,3684,3683,2110,3685,2595,1735,95,1152,49,24,2597,1015,1153],"class_list":["post-9585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-adam-grant","tag-budget","tag-budget-debate","tag-budget-discussions","tag-capital-budget","tag-capital-plan","tag-courtney-wentzell","tag-joanne-veinotte","tag-maddie-charlton","tag-mount-pleasant","tag-queens-county","tag-region-of-queens","tag-stewart-jenkins","tag-wastewater","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9585"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9589,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9585\/revisions\/9589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}