The Municipality of Westlake-Gladstone has reported a surplus from their 2015 budget.

Mayor David Single says it was tough keeping the budget balanced with amalgamation last year, adding it wouldn't have been possible without the great staff members.

"I'm really pleased with the surplus. With amalgamation it was a really hard to balance the budget, so I think this is really good news that we came out in the black (with a surplus) so credit to the staff."

Single says he had a lot of confidence in his staff.

"I was fairly confident that our CAO had kept us on budget and I knew we'd be close. It was tough, especially when it was a lot of estimates because we knew what the 3 municipalities cost before amalgamation, so it was just a matter of putting them together and hoping we came out right and obviously we were pretty good at it."

He explains the surplus.

"The surplus is just over $24,000, and on a $4,000,000 budget that's pretty good. We did a good job of budgeting, but with amalgamation it was a tough job, but our CAO and staff did a good job keeping up to date on the year and making sure we didn't go over budget. I will give them the credit for keeping it in a surplus situation."

Single says it'll be a lot easier to budget this year, not having to deal with amalgamation.