Dryden’s Debt Load Continues To Rise

Not the best news at last night’s Dryden Council Meeting.
A presentation was made by Don Yurkiw regarding the financial statements.
It seems the city’s debt load keeps rising, with 16 million dollars in shortfall of the operating costs.
Mayor Craig Nuttall says this brings the total debt load into the 40 million dollar ballpark.
He says putting the 16 million dollars from the operating budget loss on top of the around 27 million dollar debt, that comes to about 43 million dollars.
Other factors include the overdraft, which is now at 7.4 million dollars, and the lack of reserves.
This overrides a previous statement made at a meeting regarding the sale of DMTS and Dryden Mobility, where he said the city was in debt 35 million dollars.
However Nuttall continues to remain positive, and is looking forward to the upcoming hockey tournaments coming to the arena’s, which is expected to bring in revenue.
Council continues to look at every service and see where cuts can be made, and Nuttall says the public needs to understand and be patient because some services will see cutbacks.
The ideal goal is to cut the budget by 3 million dollars.