Letters: Jan 26

Central Frontenac Budget, Mark Montagano

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, Patrick Maloney

Central Frontenac Budget

Here we go again, the Central Frontenac budget dance. We need a 14% increase! The purpose? To soften us up for a 5-7% increase in taxes after a 5% increase last year!  We can't afford these increases year after year. It is simply unsustainable!  The federal Conservatives asked departments to spend the year preparing budgets of 5% and 10% less. The provincial government has a major study under way to reduce the costs of providing services. Make no mistake, there will be cutbacks and layoffs at both the federal and provincial levels but we ask our department heads for their wish list! Should we not be providing direction to them in keeping with this environment - at least ask them to come up with plans based on a zero percent increase in their budgets? We need more revenue and not through increased tax rates.  We need to ask some tough questions and formulate solutions.

Are we friendly towards growth in this area?  Development means increased tax revenues. You can keep raising taxes 5% a year and still go nowhere or you can increase revenues through growth and tax increases that are at or below the cost of living. 

Are all taxpayers paying their fair share? Some people are paying huge tax bills and others, through loopholes and subsidies, are paying next to nothing. We know this situation exists, but what are we doing to address it?

Are we taking advantage of tax grants from all levels of government? Do we actively pursue these grants, or do we come across them by happenchance? Is someone in the Township or Council charged with digging out these funds and pursuing opportunities? Are we ready for opportunities? For example, the infrastructure funds that were available two years ago. Were we prepared? Did we need a bridge then? Did we need a new work centre? Did we request funds? No. We increased the size of the Township offices. Let's have plans in place for a new work centre and when funds are available go get them. It scares me when I hear of projects with paybacks of 20 to 50 years! Capital should not be spent in this type of environment unless the payback is less than 12 months.

In terms of a solution, we need our politicians to table a plan that tackles the underlying issues of growth, increased revenues, fair taxation, support from other levels of government and the size and makeup of this township. This report should be tabled prior to next year's budget and work should commence immediately. We need to task our politicians and staff to come to the table with plans for no more than a zero percent increase in their budgets.  Focus on the big issues and spend time doing the right things and we and our children can all look forward to a bright future. 

Mark Montagano

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

The previous Central Frontenac Public Works manger somehow convinced the council of the day that consolidating the Oso & Hinchinbrooke garages and the Olden & Kennebec garages by mothballing both Oso & Kennebec, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to double the size of the Olden & Hinchinbrooke garages to house the extra equipment, adding substantially to the time that road crews would spend on the highway driving back and forth to where they used to start from, wasting man hours and increasing wear & tear on equipment while drastically reducing the time actually spent plowing & maintaining township roads, was a smart thing to do. He then quit a few years later. Four members of that council are on the present council including the current mayor.

Since then the Township has spent a further $845,000. on two Sand & Salt Enclosures for the Olden & Hinchinbrooke Public Works yards.

The empty Oso & Kennebec garages are still standing and being heated and, to compound the absurdity, a $500,000. tin box fire station was built about a hundred feet away from the empty 5 bay Oso Garage.

Jump ahead a few years and the new CF Public Works Manager Mike Richardson wants to purchase land and further consolidate the Township garages onto one site near Parham and, of course, mothball the other two garages.

The original decision to amalgamate the garages made no sense economically and even less sense service wise, but the over $1 Million spent since then on construction additions dictates that they stay in service. It can be argued that the Hinchinbrooke yard was always poorly situated at the southern end of the township but that should have been obvious before they decided to spend $1/2 Million doubling the size of the garage and building a huge sand/salt enclosure on the property.

The current inefficient arrangement already has men and equipment wasting countless hours running up and down the highway and further consolidation of the garages is not going to improve that. Predictably it is Kennebec that will suffer the most if this new plan is implemented. The round trip from Parham to Arden for example, is 61 km, a long haul for heavy machinery, which plays nicely into Councilor Dewey’s equally ridiculous counter proposal to sell off the Township equipment and subcontract all of the Township road work.

The present system has already led to a lot of subcontracting for winter roads maintenance with mixed results. It has been demonstrated elsewhere that when outside contractors completely take over Municipal Public Works services their price escalates in the 2nd and 3rd year, perceived savings quickly evaporate and by then there is no going back.

Locally, a very thorough cost comparison between sub contracting and in-house pick up & delivery of solid waste & recyclables done in October 2007 for the CF Waste Management Committee by the former CAO showed a saving of $10,699./yr. for in-house over private sector.

From a service perspective, sub contractors have no loyalty but to themselves when the inevitable unplanned “circumstances” threaten their bottom line. Public Works Dept. loyalty is, as it should be, to the taxpayer.

Patrick Maloney