Borough council highlights for Oct. 3

Saint-Laurent has a little extra money left over from 2005 to add to its free surplus. In his account of the state of local finances made at Tuesday's council meeting, Borough Mayor Alan DeSousa revealed that Saint-Laurent has a surplus of $507,473. The amount will be transferred to the borough's free surplus, to be used at the borough's discretion.

"We try not to use the surplusses to pay the 'groceries'. If you use it one year to pay for an ongoing expense, maybe the next year you won't have the money. We try to use it selectively," explained DeSousa. The borough dipped into the surplus last year, for example, to pay for the new garbage bins, he said.

This marks the fourth straight year that Saint-Laurent has recorded a surplus since becoming part of the city of Montreal. However, the amount is much less than previous years, when the surplus was in the millions. "It depends on the year," said DeSousa.

He anticipates $64,357,700 in expenses and revenues worth $2,823,000 for the current year. Budgetary previsions for 2007 will be made public on Oct. 25.

A Tait Street resident wants council to do something to discourage motorists from using his street as a shortcut to bypass the traffic clogging up Marcel Laurin at rush hour. Antoine Beauvais has also had it with employees of office buildings on Marcel Laurin who park their cars on his street during the day and prevent him from getting in and out of his driveway. "It's time to do something to remedy the situation," he told council.

He noted that the problem has nothing to do with the construction and repairs currently being done on the Marcel Laurin, but believes that it will only get worse once the condos being built along the street are finally ready to house occupants. He suggested the borough implement traffic restrictions similar to the ones applied to Gohier Street, which motorists are forbidden from using at certain times during the day.

"Once the work on Marcel Laurin is finished [in mid November or December], the situation should improve," said DeSousa, adding the local traffic committee will look into Beauveais' complaint. (A. B.)