Frontenac County Council

Ambulance base set for Ompah; Parham base to move to Sharbot Lake within 3-5 years

Against the objections of Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski, Frontenac County Council sided with North Frontenac Council and chose to locate a new ambulance base in Ompah.

Mayor Gutowski voted against building the base in Ompah because it brings with it a requirement to relocate the Parham base to Sharbot Lake within 3-5 years.

“I think we need to look at this from a regional perspective,” Gutowski said in debating the motion to support the proposal. “The move to Ompah is not supported by the information we have. It would be a decision that is based upon a political agenda from North Frontenac.”

North Frontenac Mayor Ron Maguire said he takes exception to Mayor Gutowski saying this is politically driven. “Our Council rejected the initial report because it did not take enough into account. I see no problem with building a base in Ompah.”

“My Council is not satisfied that there is enough information in the report to support this. It is our opinion that we should look further at where the northern base should be located,” Gutowski reiterated.

“Would you like to see this deferred?” County Warden Gary Davison asked Gutowski.

“Is this an imminent construction project?” asked Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek.

“We have an ambulance that is left running all day long during the winter because it is located out of doors,” said Paul Charbonneau, the Director of the Frontenac Land Ambulance Service. “This was the priority item in the ambulance review we conducted last year. It is something we would like to see resolved this year.”

“I think I can support this. What this does is start the project in Ompah,” said Mayor Vanden Hoek.

The resolution was supported by three of the four members of county council.

The decision by the county ends four months of speculation about the best location for an ambulance base to serve the northern end of the county.

In October of last year, Paul Charbonneau delivered a report, which recommended that the new base, which will operate 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, be located in the vicinity of Ardoch Road and Highway 509. Charbonneau's proposal was supported by a consultant’s report, which recommended that location because it would help bring service not only to North Frontenac, but to Highway 7 between Sharbot Lake and Arden.

At the time, North Frontenac Council appealed to the county to reject that proposal. They objected to the new base being located in Central Frontenac, and said it would be too far from the residents in Ompah and some major lakes in the township, including Canonto and Palmerston Lakes.

County Council sided with North Frontenac, and sent Paul Charbonneau back to the drawing board.

Charbonneau returned to county council in January, with a new proposal to build an ambulance base in Ompah, and move the existing Parham base to Sharbot Lake to help cover Highway 7.

Charbonneau said at the time that either plan would bring Frontenac County into compliance with a 30-minute response time from almost all locations within the county, which is the accepted standard for rural ambulance service,

When the new plan was presented to Central Frontenac Council it was roundly rejected. Councilors from Hinchinbrooke District saw no reason to take away the one major piece of municipal infrastructure from their district, and no one on else council thought moving the Parham base was a good idea.

Central Frontenac Council then passed a motion asking Frontenac County to defer any decision about moving the Parham base until further information about projected population growth shows it would be beneficial.

But Central Frontenac’s concerns ended up landing on deaf ears

The $300,000 cost of the new base is included in the 2010 County budget. The new base will be co-located with a new fire hall to be built by North Frontenac Township on land that is located across the road from the existing Ompah fire hall.

The decision will have an immediate impact on North Frontenac Township’s own 2010 budget, because the long-awaited fire hall project will now have to be fast-tracked. 

County budget debate heads into March as Fairmount Home budget under scrutiny

Frontenac County Council held two special budget meetings, and then devoted the bulk of their regular February meeting to the budget, but they have still not been able to finalise the document. They will hold a meeting on March 3 to try to dot some of the i’s and cross some of the t’s.

Chief among the reasons for the extra meeting was concern over the budget of the county-owned Fairmount Home for the Aged.

Although Fairmount Home will be less expensive for the county to operate this year because of increased revenue from single occupancy rooms, County Councilor Jim Vanden Hoek from Frontenac Islands expressed his continuing concern about the cost of the home to municipal ratepayers.

“While the outlook looks ok for this year, the forecast over five years does not look good. I’m mindful of the fact that Fairmount costs $49 per patient day in municipal subsidy and the provincial average is $28. Staffing is by far the largest part of the Fairmount budget. I’m seeking guidance from staff, but I think we need to look at staffing levels if we are going to bring costs down,” Vanden Hoek said.

Fairmount Home Director Julie Shillington said, “I should point out that the consultant’s report said that staffing levels should be held until contract negotiations take place. We are 7-9% higher than average and that can be addressed during negotiations. I would argue until the end of time that we are not overstaffed, but I can say that staff are paid more than at other places.”

Late last fall, Vanden Hoek proposed that Fairmount decrease its operating budget by 5% per year for 5 years. His motion to that effect had been deferred several times, but it was brought to the table at this point in the Fairmount budget debate.

Julie Shillington said, “When you talk about 5% of the budget you are talking about 10 staff in year one, which would bring us back to the staffing levels we had when we were a 96-bed facility [Fairmount now has 128 beds]. In year 2 we would have to cut 6 people, 6 in year three, 5 in year 4, and 5 in year 5. We really can’t do this.”

Warden Gary Davison asked how many staff work at the home, and Shillington responded that 77 full and part time people work there.

Vanden Hoek’s motion was seconded by North Frontenac Mayor Ron Maguire, and then defeated in a 4-0 vote.

Ron Maguire then said he wondered what a 1% budget cut for Fairmount, which would save $100,000, would look like.

“Can we earmark that as a budget desire, and look at it at the end?” asked Jim Vanden Hoek.

“I just want to be clear that it would mean staff reductions, two positions. It cannot be done without staff reductions,” said Shillington.

“I would entertain seeing a report,” said County Warden Gary Davison, “but I certainly would not support losing staff at this time.”

Aside from Fairmount Home, county council spent time looking at projects that have been identified by county staff under the county’s integrated sustainability plan.

While these projects do not impact municipal taxes directly since the funding for them was to come from the county gas tax rebate, Warden Davison said he would like to see some of that rebate transferred to the local municipalities, where it can be used for infrastructure spending on roads bridges, or waste management, and in that way help keep township tax rates down.

Council decided to cut a $150,000 regional roads system study out of the budget, and asked Joe Gallivan, the county’s sustainability planner, to meet instead with local road superintendents and see if a regional roads system in the county is feasible.

Warden Davison said “I would love to see $110,000 distributed to the townships and $40,000 stay here for the roads system study, if it is needed, “ said Davison.

Other projects that were discussed include a $75,000 community improvement plan study and a $30,000 population study.

Council asked staff for a full report on how the county gas tax rebate has been spent, and how much has accumulated over the past four years, with a view towards providing some sort of policy direction for the funds going forward.