| Dec 21, 2016


As part of an initiative that is being led by Lennox and Addington County, Addington Highlands is now making use of the services of McDougall Insurance Brokers to help them navigate the world of municipal insurance. Until this year the township has dealt directly with Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT), one of three companies that offer municipal insurance in Ontario. Chuck Airhart, from McDougall, came to Council this week to talk about how his company is working at ensuring that the township has of its needs met. He said that the cost of basic insurance from JLT is set to rise this year by about $2,000 or 4%, from just under $72,000 in 2016 to $74,000 in 2017.

“The cause of this is really global,” Airhart said, “there is lots happening and the american and worldwide markets.”

In addition, he said that cyber-insurance, which until now had been covered within the existing policy from JLT, has now been pulled out and needs to be paid for on its own.

“I don’t have the final quote for that from JLT, it was not ready when I was leaving my office to come here today,” he said, but I have a price of $2,400 from another company so that is a maximum and maybe it will be less.”

Airhart’s son Mike attended the meeting with him. Mike also works for Mcdougall and is better versed in cyber-security issues. He said “as a municipality you have private information, including information from you ratepayers, that needs to be protected, and as we know even with a good system in place, it can be hacked.”

“How responsible are we, if we are hacked,” asked Deputy Reeve Bill Cox.

“Unfortunately it comes back into your lap,” said Chuck Arihart.

Airhat also proposed that the township consider a $1,200 policy for Facility User Event Liability (FUEL) to cover for damage from individuals and groups who rent township facilities. Council was interested, but when they found out that the coverage does  not inlcude use of township facilities for licensed events, they saw less benefit.

They received the information from the Airhart’s and voted to accept the $74,000 insurance contract and up to $2,400 for cyber-coverage, and to decline the FUEL policy.

Township willing to help Kaladar Commuinity Centre, to a point
Bill Cox and Councillor Tony Fritsch met with representatives from the Kaladar Community Club to talk about their struggles to keep the Community Centre open now that the Land O’Lakes Tourist Association is no longer a tenant in the building.

Tony Fritsch said that “we discussed the viability of it. It was a good and candid discussion. They are looking at revenue and at cutting costs to keep it going, and I think they will be coming forward with a request for a small grant from us before we do our budget for next year, like other groups do.

“We told them that we cannot take over the building,” Cox said, “and they seem to be ok with that. They said it costs them $6,000 a year to keep it going, but when they have some problems beyond that as well. They are struggling. They do make money from the bingo’s they hold but that money cannot be used to help maintain the building. We said we would keep in touch with them and that the township does want to help to the extent that we can.”

New propane furnace for Health Centre
Ongoing heating issues at the Lakelands Family Health Team building, which is owned by the township, have led a contractor to propose that a new propane furnace be installed to replace electrical heating systems at two locations in the building. $12,000 has been quoted and Council decided it was better to spend that money than to continue with the electrical systems. Two other quotes will be sought before the contract is awarded.

Water woes hitting Denbigh where it hurts, at the rink
Councillor Fritsch reported that early in the day an attempt was made to flood the Denbigh rink, but the water table in the shallow well that is used to flood the rink is so low that it only ran for a minute or two and the rink could not be made.

“The well is shallow, it normally only runs for 15 or 20 minutes, but this time we didn’t get enough to flood the rink,” said Fritsch.

The fire department will be contacted to see if they can help out by flooding the rink until the water comes up in the well.

1/2 price for use of Flinton Rink
Peter Rasenberg made a request that rink fees be waived for a skating program that runs on Saturdays from 10:am until 12:30 pm at the Flinton rink between January 7th and mid March, and for a fundraising hockey tournament on Sunday, February 18.

“I have no problem with this, except that the fundraiser is to support activities for only one the Pineview Free Methodist Boys and Girls youth group, instead of all township children. I have nothing against that group, but it would good if all kids had the opportunity to go,”said Reeve Hogg.

(Correction – Reeve Hogg mentioned at the meeting that in a cutline for a photo that appeared in the Frontenac News two weeks ago he was identified as Henry Higgins, a mash up of his name and that of North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins. Ron Higgins also informed the news about this in an email last week. We apologize to both Reeve Hogg and Mayor Higgins for the mix-up. Neither has yet taken up our offer to record them reciting “The Rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain” or singing “I’ve grown accustomed to your face”  for a Youtube posting, but the offer still stands)

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