Addington Highlands Council - Oct 17/16

Jeff Green | Oct 19, 2016

L&A looking for new location for Denbigh ambulance base

Reeve Henry Hogg told members of Addington Highland's Council that Lennox and Addington County will be initiating a search for a location for a new ambulance base in Denbigh.

“That's the best news we've heard about ambulance service in Denbigh from them,” said Councilor Kirby Thompson.

“Are they serious about this?” asked Councilor Tony Fritsch.

“The [L&A County] Council is supportive of this,” said Hogg.

A report from Lennox and Addington Chief of Emergency Services, Mark Schjerning, was presented to a working meeting of L&A County Council on October 12. The report talked about setting up a process to find suitable land for new ambulances bases in Stone Mills and Loyalist townships by hiring the same consulting firm that was used to purchase the property where the Northbrook ambulance was built in 2013.

When a member of L&A Council asked at the October 12 meeting about what was happening with the Denbigh base, which is in a rental space and requires an upgrade in order for continued service at that location to be viable, it resulted in an ad-hoc debate over the future of the Denbigh service.

A motion to close the Denbigh base and cut the 12-hour a day service was proposed, and defeated. A subsequent motion to add Denbigh to the list of communities listed in the Schjerning report was approved by L&A Council in a unanimous vote.

“I think we should take a role in this,” said Councilor Tony Fritsch.

“It needs to be a location on a provincial highway, because there needs to be 24-hour road clearing, so along Highway 41 or 28 is what we are looking for,” said Hogg.

Council passed a motion encouraging Denbigh residents to come forward with suitable properties. Council members will also be working the phones to find a location and forward it to the consultants.

“This is our best chance to secure ambulance service for Denbigh for the future,” said Hogg, “so we need to jump on it.”

More support for Abundant Solar FIT projects

Council provided support for four more ground mount solar projects that Abundant Solar is planning to submit to the Independent Electricity Service Operator (IESO) for consideration in the FIT5 procurement process.

The projects would all be located on leased private land. Two of them are located in Ward 2 (former township of Abinger) and two in Ward 1 (former township of Kaladar)

Changes coming at waste sites

A number of proposals for changes to the operating procedures and fees at township waste sites came out of an October 6 meeting of the Roads, Bridges and Waste Committee.

Among them was a proposal to control access to waste sites, which council approved and will take effect on March 31, 2017.

Another proposal was to limit the dumping of construction materials to a single yard (1' x 4' x 8'). All other construction materials will have to be dumped at commercial sites outside of the township.

Council also decided that the offer of one free clear bag of waste for every bin of recycling is too generous and will be changing the offer to one free clear bag for every two bins of recycling. Paper products, including cardboard and newsprint, will no longer be included in the exchange for free clear bags.

Finally, overall tipping fees are changing as well. In addition to limiting construction waste to one yard for a $15 fee, $30 will be charged for spring mattresses, sofas and chairs, appliances, and carpets.

HVAC issues at Northbrook Medical Centre

When the township took ownership of the medical center in Northbrook in order to establish a family health team, they also took on two oil furnaces, a propane furnace, and the requirement for space heaters in back offices on the east side of the building and in the pharmacy.

“The building has had numerous additions over the years, leading to a pretty inefficient and complicated heating and cooling system,” said Councilor Tony Fritsch.

Robert Bosley of Bosley Heating and Cooling met with Fritsch at the medical center to look at what was there and he sent a letter outlining three options for the township to consider.

Option 2, which Bosley described as the “proper way to correct the issues here and be done properly”, would be to remove everything that is there and install a fully engineered brand-new heating and cooling system with new ducts. The price for that is “in excess of $200,000.”

Option 1 is to put in smaller systems for the east side of the building and the pharmacy at a cost of $60,000.

Option 3 is to put in “ductless split heat pump units to the areas that need heat in winter and cooling in summer.” He said six of these units would be required at a price of $5,000 each.

“With this kind of expense, this will have to go to our 2017 budget deliberations,” said Councilor Bill Cox.

Tony Fristch said that the two worst locations, the pharmacy and the east corner, need to be addressed more quickly.

“I don't know how they work there,” said Fritsch. “I think we need to deal with those right away. I propose we buy two of these units, for $10,000 and see how they work, and look at the rest of it for the budget.

Council agreed and passed a motion allocating $10,000 from reserves.

Meeting times to change

Reeve Hogg presented a Notice of Motion, to be dealt with on November 7, to change the meeting time for the second council meeting of the month, which is held in Denbigh, to 1 pm from the current time of 7 pm. This change would be in place from November until March, to cut down on long night drives during the winter months for staff who live away from the township.