Blackfalds Town Council approved its 2017 budgets last night.

Next year residents will be seeing a minimal tax increase of 0.7%, which is around $17 dollars a year for an average home around $300 thousand dollars.

Mayor Melodie Stol says Blackfalds is still a new community and as such they still have to add new amendities and services

As well, Stol adds they still have to pay for some big ticket items including the Abbey Centre and RCMP station "I think we've tried to get a good balance between being mindful of the economic climate and people's personal ability to pay pay their taxes.  We have to be very mindful of that, we also have to be mindful of the needs of the community moving forward.  This is just a temporary situation the current economic climate, we still have to think about a community growing and being healthy, being successful".

Stol says just from new buildings and new assessment, the budget was able to increase by around $200,000 thanks to the growth of the community "that's always the best part of growth, is that you get to add more structures and more citizens, and of course the downside, you might have another kilometer of road to plow the snow on, you might have to get another RCMP Officer to accomodate that, so growth is good in that it helps balance out your budget moving forward".

Highlights of the capital budget include 24 projects totalling around 12 million dollars.

A new playground at the Cottonwood schools, phase two of the BMX park and an upgrading to the Civic Building parking lot are a couple of projects on the books for next year.