The 2017 budget for the town of Stonewall is set to be brought before council on the weekend of March 10th.

Mayor Lockie McLean notes they have a very experienced council this year, going into the third year of their term, with plenty of wants and needs in terms of how to move the town forward; from staffing needs to service the community to making the town more aesthetically pleasing. However, he notes this can get costly.

He explains their main goal for the budget is to stay out of taxpayers' pockets.

"It gets harder every year and it's hard in the sense that you know that costs are going up and you have to stay out of the taxpayers' pockets. So our goal is to try to keep any tax increase that we have in this budget, and going forward, to within the cost of living. So once it gets to two percent the red light goes on. Stop; something's got to be cut, we can't do something. A budget process is a difficult process now. In Stonewall we've almost hit 5,000 in terms of the population but we've got a lot going on and so it doesn't get easy at budget time, it gets harder every year."

Within a month of the budget being brought before council there will be a public hearing where people can ask questions and voice their concerns about the new financial plan. McLean notes they're hoping for a large turnout to the meeting when the budget is presented, adding it makes the reason for what they're doing all the more meaningful.