Addington Highlands Council back to meeting in person

Craig Bakay | Oct 07, 2020

Addington Highlands Township Council held its first ‘in-person’ meeting Tuesday since the covid-19 pandemic drove everybody online back in March. Addington Highlands is the first municipal council in The Frontenac News’ coverage area to go totally offline.

For the record, there were four Council members (Coun. Kirby Thompson was not in attendance), five staff members, two members of the public and one reporter in the large upstairs multipurpose room at Flinton Recreation Centre. Attendees were asked to fill out a questionnaire, use hand sanitizer and wear a face mask before being allowed entry to the meeting. Inside, there was ample physical distancing. The cavernous hall reverberated at times, making it difficult for those who used to play in loud rock bands to hear at times but it didn’t seem to affect the 2 ½ hour meeting at all.

As has been the case with all municipal council meetings in the past six months, much of the discussion revolved around the pandemic. In that respect, perhaps the most interest aspect was CBO David Twiddy’s building report.

“Building application submissions continue to come in at a very brisk pace, Twiddy said. “I am seeing a lot of renovations but also a number of new residential builds.

“Covid-19 has forced a lot of the public to use online services and this is no different in the building department.

“I encourage the public when applying for a permit to scan the application and drawings in and from there, if it meets with Ontario Building Code requirements, pay by way of e-transfer . . . I am very happy to see the majority of applicants using this method.”

Twiddy said he was somewhat surprised to see a lot of interest coming from the Greater Toronto Area as well.

“I probably field three to four calls a day from those people who are interested in the beauty and advantages our community has to offer,” he said.

And all this despite an increase in cost of building materials that some area suppliers have estimated at 43 per cent.

“But people are paying it,” he said. “People are building houses and decks.

“It’s like one guy said to me: ‘you can only drink beer on a bad old deck just so long.’”

Clorox machines

Still with covid-related news, Council approved the purchase of two Clorox 360 machines that can be used to provide an electrostatic spray application of a pre-mixed sanitation liquid in vapour form to sanitize high traffic surfaces.

Fire Chief Casey Cuddy noted the machines are used by many municipalities in the area and that North Frontenac Township liked theirs so well they just bought another one.

“For things like fire trucks, you just open the door, give it a spray and you’re done,” Cuddy said. “It saves a lot of time when you don’t have to wipe things down.

Cuddy said the price of the units has come down to $6,000 each as opposed to the original list price of $7,500. A case of cleaner, which will do 36,000 square feet, is $180.

Library board contest

Council was delighted to have more than one applicant for the Library Board and ended up choosing Betty Bass over Karen Lips.

“I know both of them and it’s a difficult choice,” said Dep. Reeve Tony Fritsch.

“Either would be a good choice,” said Reeve Henry Hogg.

Copeland Lake Road

Jessica Root, representing property owners on Copeland Lake Road, presented Council with a petition asking that the Township take over a 135 metre section of a road allowance that leads to a popular section of Crown Land.

Root said that property owners had been maintaining it but with the increased usage of ATVs and such due to covid curtailing other recreational activities, the section has experienced a “dramatic deterioration.”

Council asked staff to look into the situation to see what could be done.