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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012
VOL. 24, NO. 62
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Budget surplus highest in years
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SCHOOL DISTRICT sees $3.2 million at end of 2011-12. BY JENN M C GARRIGLE THE NEWS BULLETIN
CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Ennis Mond, fire prevention officer with Nanaimo Fire Rescue, starts his investigation Wednesday into a fire that gutted the interior of a vacant house on Northfield Road late Tuesday.
Cause unclear in fire that gutted house BY CHRIS BUSH THE NEWS BULLETIN
Nanaimo Fire Rescue is puzzling out the cause of a fire that gutted a vacant house Tuesday. Firefighters found the interior of the house at 2021 Northfield Rd. fully engulfed in flames when they arrived at about 11 p.m. Ennis Mond, fire prevention officer, who was investigating the scene Wednesday morning, said
no one was in the house when firefighters arrived and no one was injured. The fire appeared, upon initial inspection, to have started in a central room of the home, but no cause had been determined. Mond estimated the house to be about 80 to 100 years old. The house was scheduled for demolition and is located in an area planned for redevelopment. A rezoning application notice, to
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change the property from single dwelling residential to row housing, is posted in the home’s front yard. Mond said the house has been vacant for at least one year and was being looked after by a trust company, but electricity was still supplied to the building prior to the fire. He did not know when the trust company last inspected the property. photos@nanaimobulletin.com
It was the year of the growing surplus for Nanaimo school district last year. The district ended the 201112 year with a $3.2-million surplus – up from the $2.8-million surplus predicted last May, the $2.3 million expected earlier in the spring, and the $900,000 forecast last October. It is the highest surplus the district has had looking back 12 years, said Phil Turin, secretary-treasurer. He credits tight controls on spending, savings due to teacher job action and the funding protection grant, which ensured the district received the same amount in its operating budget as the previous year despite declining enrolment, for the higher-than-normal surplus. Trustees approved the district’s 2011-12 audited financial statements with the final numbers at a special board meeting last week. Turin said the growth of $400,000 in the surplus funds, which happened between his last forecast at the end of May and now, is mainly due to extra and unanticipated provincial funding for the district’s distance learning students, adding that his forecasted surplus in May was conservative.
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Of the $3.2-million surplus, $1.6 million was set aside last spring to balance this year’s budget and another $1.16 million of the surplus is money restricted for specific expenditures such as school supplies, community schools and communications. The unrestricted operating surplus is $480,000, which Turin hopes to put toward next year’s budget, as last spring he predicted a budget shortfall of about $2.1 million for the 201314 school year. “Hopefully we can put it in the cupboard for a bit,” he said. “The funding protection is going to go away gradually and enrolment is not going up, so we’ve got to face those issues.” For the past 12 years, the district has ended every year but one with a surplus and the average year-end surplus over that time period is $1.3 million, Turin added. Jamie Brennan, school board chairman, said the district has been able to improve the classroom situation to some extent – officials are trying to keep all classrooms at 30 students or less this year. The surplus also meant other improvements, he added. Last June, the board earmarked $174,000 for technology upgrades and $72,000 to buy 12 automatic floor scrubbers. But with funding protection on the decline, Turin cautioned trustees not to expect the situation to remain as it is now, Brennan said. reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
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