Money has been spent over the current term of West Perth municipal council, but it’s also been saved, said Mayor Walter McKenzie during his brief remarks Sept. 14 during a sod-turning ceremony held on the site of the new $3.5 million municipal building.

“We’ve probably spent more money in this term of council than any other council in history, but the unfortunate part is there was so little money spent beforehand, so we’re kind of in catch-up mode now,” he said.

“The good thing is the projects that we’re doing we’ve been able to have money set aside to enable us to go ahead and do them.”

Mayor McKenzie was referring to the Henry Street bridge and the construction of the West Perth fire station, both of which were completed last year despite the COVID-19 pandemic. He credited the assistance of higher levels of government and praised the effort of former West Perth councillor and current Perth-Wellington MP John Nater (pending the results of the Sept. 20 federal election), who was on hand for the brief ceremony.

“Some of the funding from the federal side came from what’s called the resiliency fund and I think that’s a good word to describe what council has been doing over the past number of years,” Nater said. “They’ve been resilient and working hard to make things happen. It really is a testament to council and to staff working together ensuring the municipality stays in a strong financial position in having the reserves there.”

Mayor McKenzie also recognized the effort of former treasurer Karen McLagan, who has since retired, who’s advice was to always save for the future.

“Doing that over a number of years we’ve actually had quite a nice nest-egg set away, so it worked out,” Mayor McKenzie said.

Construction for the new municipal office, located on the Wellington Street frontage of their current campus adjacent to the fire hall, was to begin this week with a projected completion date of mid-summer of 2022.

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