The heavy rains which hit the city July 1, causing severe flooding, came with a significant price tag to the City of Yorkton.
"The cost to the City for the flood is approximately $750,000," Mayor James Wilson told Yorkton This Week last Tuesday.
Of that, some costs will be incurred down the road, he said, pointing to the need to dig a new hole at the City landfill because of the huge amount of refuse which went to the dump as a result of flood damage in homes and businesses in the city. The landfill work alone will be about $150,000.
Other costs include labour costs for work associated with the clean-up, repair of wash-outs and other unexpected expenses, said Wilson.
The costs will have to be covered by the City, said Wilson, noting the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program does cover municipal losses, but the deductible is the equivalent of 1.25 mills, or $850,000 in the case of Yorkton, more than the costs incurred.
"So we probably won't see anything," he said.
The three-quarters of a million in costs would "equate to about a six per cent tax increase," said Wilson.
However, the Mayor said Council will not be looking at a tax increases to deal with the flood costs. He said there is a realization by Council people have already faced significant hardships due to the flood.
With that in mind Council has chosen to look internally for the money.
"We've got to find some funds for this, and we don't want to call upon the taxpayers," he said.Wilson said with some costs deferred, and some money likely coming from reserves, and an expected operational surplus, taxes won't have to rise because of the costs of the flood.
