Stonewall residents had a chance to comment on the town's 2017 budget last week, at a public meeting.

Mayor Lockie McLean says they went into the process by instructing administration to keep any tax increases to no more than 2%. When the process was over, this year's tax increase is 1.9%.

He says it's due to some major projects this year.

"We're going to building a new lagoon, and we've included a cost of two million as our participation to get that done. We an abandoned rail line in Stonewall. There was a final portion of it, when the tracks came out, it was still left as gravel, so we paved it. We wanted to bring a budget in that we finish the year with a surplus, so it gets the town's financial position in really good shape."

McLean thinks it was a good meeting, noting not many attended.

"And those people were just for information. There's one fellow that attends every year, and he was very complimentary at the end of the hearing, to say that he thinks it's a good budget. And we think it's a good budget. At the end of the day, if you feel good about it, then you feel good because you think you've done a good job, and when you don't get any backlash, you know that the community supports it as well."

He adds once the public meeting ended, Council held a meeting, and gave the budget first reading.