Altona town council hasn't given up hope of extending police services in the community of Plum Coulee.

The contract between the Municipality of Rhineland and Altona is into its final year, and both municipalities want to extend the service.

However, provincial legislation only allows a municipality to be serviced by one police agency. While Plum Coulee is covered by Altona Police, the RCMP patrol the rest of Rhineland municipality.

Altona CAO Dan Gagne says both municipalities have communicated to the province that they want to continue with the policing arrangement and are asking the Pallister government to consider their request for continuation of the service.

"I know that the Municipality of Rhineland and our own police chief have had several conversations with the various representatives about the possibility of making some changes, and there is hope that an adjustment will be made to the Act to allow for the current services to continue. At this point, however, they have not indicated a willingness to change the Act and have reiterated what the legislation says."

Plum Coulee will pay Altona close to $140,000 this year for police services. The province provides a grant to help offset part of that cost.

The termination of the policing contract will mean an end to that source of revenue for Altona and will force Altona Police Service to make some tough budget decisions.

"I think Chief (Perry) Batchelor wants to hold off making those plans public. He has some ideas and as time goes on he'll formulate a plan going forward, but town council will definitely want to know how this will impact. That's a significant blow to our revenue, so there will have to be some adjustments made."