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Wednesday, 11 March 2020 16:25

Canada Day to become a four-day festival

It wasn’t on the agenda at Central Frontenac Council’s budget meeting last Friday in Sharbot Lake, but Coun. Victor Heese announced the rec committees are getting together to revamp the annual Canada Day celebrations.

Essentially, Canada Day itself remains unchanged, with plenty of activities scheduled for Oso Beach in Sharbot Lake with music and the fireworks finale.

But, what’s new this year is the annual K & P Trail Day, which had been celebrated in September the past three years, will be moved up to July 4.

The two days in between, July 2 and 3, will be designated as “community days” with events and activities culminating in a four-day festival.

“We found that the Trail Day wasn’t all that well-attended,” Heese said. “There were plenty of trail riders but they essentially just want to to ride the trails. Once the lunch was over, that was it.

“Plus, July 4 is the American National Holiday and given all our American visitors, we wanted to do something to tie in with and honour them.”

While just what will be going on during the two community days is still under development, the regular Wednesday night acoustic jam at the beach is still a go, moving to Thursday night for just this one week.

The jam goes from 6:30 p.m. (or so) and is open to anybody that wants to join in, regardless of musical genre.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 05 February 2020 13:32

Regional Roads presentation fizzles

I hope readers will grant me this assumption – the idea of a virtual county roads system in Frontenac County, or anywhere else, is hard to understand. A real road goes somewhere, but a virtual one?

In fact, most of us never think about who owns the roads that we drive on every day. We know the difference between gravel roads and paved roads, two lane highways and four lane highways, but the fact that every road that we ride on is owned by someone rarely, if ever, crosses our minds.

For municipal politicians, however, road ownership is a big thing, and in Frontenac County it has been a major source of concern, and a major driver of tax increases, for over 20 years, ever since municipal amalgamation in 1998.

At that time, not only were the four current Frontenac townships created, but two other former Frontenac townships, Pittsburgh and Frontenac, became part of the City of Kingston. At the same time, the ownership of most of the major arterial roads in Frontenac County changed hands. The provincially owned Highway 38 became Road 38. The same thing happened to Hwy 506/509 in North and Central Frontenac.

The difference between a provincial road and a municipal road is all about who pays to maintain it. Roads 38, 509 and 506, as well the major roads on Howe and Wolfe Island, have been paid for through municipal taxes since 1998. Before then, they were paid for out of the provincial budget.

This scenario presents a problem. They are expensive roads to maintain and the area is sparsely populated. And when the roads need to be rebuilt every 25 years or so, local municipalities do not have the resources to pay for it.

Before Road 38 was downloaded, the section between the 401, and the border between South and Central Frontenac, was rebuilt by the province. The section between Central Frontenac and Highway 7, was not.

It took almost 8 years of relentless lobbying to obtain a provincial grant to rebuild Road 38 in Central Frontenac, and even then, the township had to take out a loan, and ratepayers in Central Frontenac are just now paying that loan off.

In the meantime, the section between the 401 and the Central Frontenac border is now almost 25 years old. It is by far the busiest stretch of road in Frontenac County and many, many Frontenac County residents use it every day to go to work in Kingston or Napanee or points east and west along the 401. It is the single most important piece of road infrastructure in the region and it is failing, in some spots it has already buckled.

South Frontenac is in a relatively strong financial position. Still, rebuilding Road 38 will require support from other levels of government, a large infrastructure grant to help cover a $10 million project, for the South Frontenac portion. Other key commuter roads in South Frontenac are also in need of rebuilding. Battersea Road ($6 million), Perth Road ($5 million), Sunbury road ($1.5 million) and Bedford Road ($1 million) are all listed for reconstruction within five years.

These cost estimates and the five-year time frame all come from a report by consultants KMPG, which was presented to a joint meeting of Frontenac County and the four Frontenac townships last Wednesday (January 29).

The KPMG report, which was presented by Bruce Peever, looked first at a previous study from 2013, by the Watson Group. The Watson Group concluded that financing the capital costs on a county-wide basis instead of township by township, would “smooth, and therefore minimise, future tax impacts to all county constituents,” and ultimately deliver “a better and more consistent level of service to all residents and businesses.”

The KPMG report then looked at how successful Frontenac County townships have been at obtaining road and bridge construction grants since 2014 as compared to its most immediate neighbours; Lennox and Addington, Hastings, Lanark and Leeds Grenville.

Frontenac County was in the middle of the pack for the first two years, but did very poorly between 2016 and 2018. According to the KPMG report, in 2018 alone, “Frontenac County received an average of $3 million less in grant funding than their comparator group.”

The chart that preceded that text in the report, does indeed show Frontenac County lagged far behind each of the comparators over the three year period. But the claim about receiving $3 million less in 2018 is not supported by the data. None of the comparators received $3 million in 2018, but Frontenac was about $2 million below the others.

As well, although the report only looks to the end of 2018, it was prepared in the 4th quarter of 2019, and in 2019 Central Frontenac alone received a $3 million dollar grant. Presumably then, if 2019 were included in the report, it would show a bounce back for Frontenac County.

In presenting the report, Bruce Peever pointed out that the future of granting programs under the current government is “uncertain, and it is difficult to project from the recent past into the near future as far as provincial granting programs are concerned.”

Nonetheless, the report concludes that if Frontenac County was able to apply for grants, in addition to the four Frontenac townships, the chances of success would be greater. All of the other comparators have county roads systems, that are eligible for grants, except for Hastings County, but Hastings County has fourteen local municipalities applying for grants and Frontenac County only has four. The basic logic of the argument for a virtual Frontenac County roads system is therefore that one more grant application can be sent in for every grant that is available and Frontenac would receive, over time, more in grants than otherwise.

As to how this should be set up, the KPMG report said it should be done the way Lennox and Addington does it. Local townships handle all maintenance and the county handles capital costs on county designated roads. The county has an engineer and crew on staff to handle the county roads, and the report says that Frontenac County should do the same, at a cost of $625,000 per year.

In responding to the report, North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins said “I understand the intent of all this, to get more grants, but I find the charts, and the report as a whole, confusing, and I don’t follow the conclusions.”

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle said “collectively we are leaving a lot of money on the table. $625,00 a year is a lot, but we spend a lot on engineering consultants and you can’t necessarily get a hold of them when you need them.”

South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal, in line with the thinking of his own council, which discussed the report at their own council meeting the previous evening, said “we feel the need to work with the existing public works departments and staff. I don’t see why we would want to create another level of bureaucracy to do this. I’d like to see a model where we do this without creating a new department.”

The whole matter has been kicked back to KPMG to prepare an implementation report, taking into account what was said at the meeting and the direction that the provincial government is headed in, to the extent that it can be determined.

But given that each of the townships will have to agree before county roads, virtual or otherwise, can be established, it is not clear that the project will move forward in 2020, just as it languished after the Watson report in 2013.

What is clear, however, is that certain major roads need to be rebuilt, and soon, and it will take grants to get rebuild them.

Would county road status make that happen more easily? No one can guarantee that.

Frontenac County chief administrative officer Kelly Pender did not say much during the presentation and the subsequent question period. He did say one thing at the very end, however.

“Every other county in Ontario has received more in infrastructure grants over the last five years than Frontenac County has. Every one.”

Published in Editorials

Last week, the Province of Ontario confirmed the annual funding for infrastructure needs, that they provide to rural Ontario municipalities, in the run up to the annual Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference.

The Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund was established under the former Liberal government in 2014 to provide funding to small, rural and northern municipalities in order to help them “build and repair critical infrastructure”.

The funding was minimal in the first couple of years, but doubled in the run-up to the 2018 provincial election. After the election, which saw the vast majority of rural ridings elect Conservative MPP’s, the program has doubled once again.

In Frontenac County, most of the money goes directly to the townships, which have responsibility for just about all of the municipal infrastructure, which is dominated by roads and bridges.

South Frontenac, which has already passed its 2020 budget based on estimates, will receive $508,412 for 2020, up from $498,738 in 2019.

Central Frontenac will receive $361,718, down from $368.076 in 2019.

North Frontenac will receive 304,907, down from 310,472

Frontenac County received $50,000, the same as last year.

In Lennox and Addington (L&A), the county level of government has more infrastructure responsibilities than the local townships. L&A will receive 761,841 this year. In 2019 they received $758,478.

Addington Highlands Township will receive $54,461 this year. In 2019, they received $55,084.

Rural municipalities also receive funding each year under the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) based upon a formula that looks at population as well as fiscal circumstances. OMPF is crucial to the smallest municipalities.

For 2020 Addington Highlands will receive $2,053,400 ($743 per household) the same as 2019.

Central Frontenac will receive $2,148,900 ($520 per household) about the same as last year.

North Frontenac gets $1,705,200 ($499 per household) down about $700 from last year.

South Frontenac will receive $1,553,400 ($148 per household) also about the same as 2019.

Published in General Interest
Wednesday, 15 January 2020 10:29

Next Gen. 9-1-1 to build on existing system

In North and Central Frontenac, the 9-1-1 system was made possible through a volunteer effort. Volunteer crew chiefs were given sections of road to cover and volunteers drove the township with measuring guns to establish the civic addressing system upon which the system was based.

The system was officially up and running on December 8, 2004.

In South Frontenac the efforts were supervised by a contract worker, but volunteers were involved as well.

Even though the systems were established only 15 years ago, one of the assumptions that it was based one is no longer the case, that 9-1-1 emergency calls come from land-lines.

Kevin Farrell, manager of continuous improvement/GIS for Frontenac County, made a presentation to Frontenac County Council this week outlining how the Next Generation of the 9-1-1 system will be unfolding over the next few years. He pointed out that, using an urban example to illustrate his point, “Uber drivers are in possession of more accurate data about where people are located than paramedics are.”

That’s because the explosion of information being transmitted wirelessly at all times, is not being fully utilised by the 9-1-1 system. Next Gen. 9-1-1, as it has been dubbed, is all about making use of all the information that is available, in order to get to people in need faster, with less human effort.

For Frontenac County, most of the required changes fall into the general category of data management. Between the county, which runs the GIS (Global Information Systems) for the townships, and township employees on the ground, constantly updating information, the job will centre on ensuring that the existing data is in the form it needs to be in, when it is time to provide new data sets to the new system.

The civic addressing signs, which are located at the side of the road, are the locations that are provided to emergency personnel by the system. One of the changes in the new system will be to provide the location of the homes on those properties as well, which in some cases are located well off the roadway.

The phone numbers from land lines associated with each property are part of the current system, so when a call is made from a land line, dispatchers have that information and can dispatch crews, even if the caller does not remember their civic address in the heat of the moment.

This is not the case for cell phones, however, and as Farrell pointed out in his presentation, 70% of 9-1-1 calls now come from cell phones, 20% from land-lines and 10% from Internet based phone systems (aka Voice Over Internet Protocol - VOIP).

The current system has developed what his presentation described as “band-aide solutions to locate mobile phone users”. One of the main goals in developing Next-Gen 9-1-1, is to make full use of the information that is now available from multiple sources, including: text, images, video and data.

Preparing for it will not involve re-doing the work that was done by volunteers early in the century, however.

“This civic addressing data, which has been continually updated by township staff since the system came online, will remain” said Farrell in a phone interview before making his presentation to Council, “but it will be a challenge to provide updated information to the system, in the time-frame that they are now looking for.”

Township building and public works employees are always gathering new information when putting up new signs or overseeing new construction, and that information is provided to the system in batches. In the future that will have to be done within 72 hours, so a new way to easily get new entries into the system, needs to be developed.

The new 9-1-1 data system will have a national scope and will be under development for some time.

“This presentation provides a heads-up to Council about what is coming, and to let them know what our department and the townships are going to be working on,” Farrell said.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

Like most of you, my wife and I pay more in municipal taxes for our home than we would like. The municipal tax system is based on property values, and as property values increase so does the amount we pay. It is like a pre-tax on the eventual sale of our homes, be that day five years, ten years, or fifty years down the road. In some rural jurisdictions, like ours, the tax rate is double that of the City of Toronto.

Because their homes are valued at 4 or 5 times the value of our homes, most Toronto ratepayers pay much more than we do. But at the end of the day they have that stronger asset, which will make them millionaires some time in the future and gives them equity right now.

Also in Toronto, a huge range of services are provided by the city, including sewers, swimming pools, parks, comprehensive social services, waste pickup, public transportation, even thousands of multi-coloured stop-lights.

It is a classic economy of scale issue. And road maintenance is as graphic an illustration of that as anything else. There are so many more ratepayers to tap into, in order to maintain a single kilometre of road in Toronto, as compared to Frontenac County.

In the wintertime, however, this population density can be a problem, as anyone who travels to a residential neighbourhood in a big city, a week after a snow storm, can tell you. Around here, within a matter of hours, crews have knocked the snow to the side and covered the road with a layer of sand and salt, but in the city, parked cars are in the way, and there is no where to push the snow. If there are consecutive weather events, it can be weeks until everything settles down, and most of the work ends up being done by the cars themselves, packing snow down into brown clumps of urban dirt.

Even with the rural advantage as far as snow and ice removal are concerned, I have to say that the service from road crews in Frontenac County, in particular in Central Frontenac, which I see the most because it is where I live, have been impressive in recent years, and this year even more so.

The legal requirement on many of our roads is for them to be cleared if there is an accumulation of more than 15 centimetres of snow on the ground, but our municipalities know that mobility is essential for most of us, and crews are out whenever the roads can be improved by plowing, sanding, or both. On statutory holidays and weekends over Christmas and New Years, crews were working day and night to deal with changes in road conditions because of the “wintry” mix we have been facing.

And this weekend, in spite of all the weather, the roads remained passable, even if it was not advisable to use them. If someone really had to get out, or emergency personnel had to get in, just about all township roads, even the back roads, were passable throughout the weekend, as long as the drivers took proper precautions and were driving suitable vehicles.

And over the years, the service has, if anything, become more reliable.

I’ll try to remember that when the first 2020 tax bill arrives later this month.

Published in Editorials

They say third time’s the charm and it could be so for new Frontenac County Warden Frances Smith. Smith, who is on County Council by virtue of being Mayor of Central Frontenac Township, was sworn in in December for a third term as warden, having served previously in 1996 and 20 years later in 2016 during the last County Council term.

“In 1996, there were 29 people around the horseshoe so it was bit intimidating,” Smith said. “This time, I know the people on Council as many of them were also on Council in the previous term.

“Also, I know a little bit more of what to expect.”

Smith said she’s actually looking forward to the job, although it’s already taking up much of her time.

“Already January is booked solid,” she said. “There are a lot more conferences to attend when you’re warden and each one requires a lot of reading to prepare. But that’s what I signed up for and I do still enjoy it or I wouldn’t be doing it.”

Smith said agreements with the City of Kingston figure prominently in this term’s agenda as do budget cuts to Fairmount Home and the Frontenac Paramedic Service

She said she looks forward to business development in the County with events like last year’s Open Farms and other agritourism and “foodie events.”

“I think the County kind of kickstarted those but as others started to get involved, I think they’ll grow stronger with the County assisting more than taking the lead,” she said.

She said that while she was reluctant to do the social media County Council recaps, they seem to have a following and she’ll continue doing them, “event though I had no aspirations of being an actress growing up.”

Frontenac County wardens serve a one year term. Only the mayors of the Frontenac townships are eligible to seek election. Smith, who served as deputy warden in 2019, was acclaimed to the role. South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal was acclaimed to the position of deputy warden.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

EORN (the Eastern Ontario Regional Network) has secured the last piece of funding it needs to set up its newest project. A $71 million commitment from the Province of Ontario, paired with a $10 million commitment from local municipalities, leaves only a federal government commitment of another $71 million still to come.

A request for proposal for private sector partners to invest the remaining $61 million for the $213 million project to get underway.

The Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) has designated both mobile (cell service) and fixed broadband (high speed internet) as a basic service for all Canadians.

The EORN project is designed to fill some specific service gaps in Eastern Ontario that would not be filled otherwise by the private sector because of what it calls “market failure”, not enough revenue for companies to justify large capital investments to serve too few customers in rural areas.

Currently 40% of the area does not have access to high definition internet services, 20% of the area does not have access to standard definition internet services, and 10% of the are has no voice call (cell) service at all.

This new project has, as its goal, 99% voice call cell service, 95% coverage for standard definition internet service, and 85% high speed internet service. In addition EORN intends to invest $34 million in increased capacity (5G) network enhancements in high density, high usage areas.

EORN is a not for profit corporation created by the Eastern Ontario Warden’s caucus to help improve internet service in 12 eastern Ontario counties and the City of Kawartha Lakes. To date it has been responsible for bringing more than $300 million in high speed infrastructure to the region.

Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith is one of 9 board members who oversee EORN operations.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC

While the Ottawa area and the Muskokas have been battling floods all spring, mainland Frontenac County has pretty much escaped the worst of things.

All three townships have posted warnings on their websites but only North Frontenac has had to do much flood fighting of any note, and that hasn’t been bad, said Director of Emergency Services/Fire Chief Eric Korhonen.

“When they opened the dam on the Mazinaw, it created some flooding on Head Road,” he said. “We’ve had water over the road in Plevna, a little bit of flooding on Kash and in the Snow Road area, there have been five or six homes flooded along the Mississippi.

“We’ve given out about 3,000 sand bags and I’d really like to commend the citizen volunteers and firefighters who have risen to the occasion,” he said. “We’ve had seven culverts go and seven road washouts but the Public Works Department has really been on the ball.

“There’s no need to call an emergency.

“If residents have problems, they can call us and we’ll have firefighters run out there with pumps.”

In Central and South Frontenac Townships, flooding has been virtually non-existent.

“We’ve fared very well compared with others,” said Central Frontenac Emergency Management Coordinator/Fire Chief Greg Robinson. “We have had some road washouts and flooding but no houses have been flooded.”

Robinson said when Central has flooding issues, it’s commonly in the Depot Lakes area but this year they’ve been more concerned about the northern areas.

“The Salmon River is high,” he said. “We’ve been preparing for flooding and we do have a sandbag program but we haven’t had to implement it.”

“(South Frontenac) is in excellent shape, comparatively speaking,” said Fire Chief Darcy Knott. “We haven’t had any significant issues.”

Knott wanted to remind people that the Township is holding a Touch-the-Truck event May 9 from 5-8 p.m. at the Keeley Road Garages in conjunction with United Way, where people can see and touch the equipment emergency personnel use including police and paramedics.

Over in neighbouring Addington Highlands Township, things haven’t been quite as quiet, said Road and Waste Management Supervisor Brett Reavie.

“We’ve had a couple of washouts (including Hughes Landing Road where crews worked through the night to correct the situation) we’ve worked on,” Reavie said. “We’re busy for sure.

“Rose Hill Road is still down because we’re waiting on getting a culvert.”

He said area waters are still high, especially in the north.

“It’s been a little extreme because of the amount of snowfall we had all winter,” he said. “And in the north, it’s tending to stick around because it didn’t get the thaws that the south end of the Township got.

“The north didn’t get the melts the south got and so it’s tending to come all at once.”

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY
Wednesday, 17 April 2019 12:50

North Frontenac passes smoking bylaw

At first glance, the smoking bylaw North Frontenac Council passed at its regular meeting last Friday in Plevna seemed a lot more ominous than it actually turns out to be.

For example, one section contains the phrase: “No person shall, smoke or vape within 20 metres of any point on the perimeter of the outdoor grounds of a community recreational facility and public areas.”

Now if you interpret that to mean the property lines of Township facilities, you might conclude that the bylaw extends into private property. For example, in the case of Barrie Hall, that would mean extending across Hwy 41, into Addington Highlands Township and onto the home of Addington Highlands Reeve Henry Hogg. It would also mean that in some cases, it would extend into Crown Lands (for example some boat launches).

But that’s not the intension, Clerk/Planning Manager Tara Mieske said Tuesday in an interview.

“It only pertains to Township-owned facilities and property,” she said. “The bylaw was updated to come into line with the updated Smoke-Free Ontario Act, which now includes cannabis and the bylaw is designed to reflect that.”

This means smoking is restricted to 9 metres from the entrance to a Township building and 20 metres from the ‘perimeter’ of a children’s playground, sporting area or recreational facility, but it doesn’t extend past the Township-owned property, she said.

“This includes the ballfield and tennis courts in Cloyne but not Township beaches and boat launches, or things that don’t have a roof like waste sites,” she said.

It also doesn’t include things like the Township garages and municipal office (although the 9 metres from the entrance still applies), she said.

Technically, the 20 metres doesn’t include fire halls but in some cases (notably Ompah and Snow Road) the fire halls are attached or adjacent to recreational halls and/or libraries where the 20-metre restriction does apply.

One other unclear aspect of the bylaw is what constitutes smoking.

“Smoke and Smoking includes carrying or holding of a lighted tobacco product, a lighted cannabis product, an activated electronic cigarette, or a lighted or heated water pipe,” would seem to prohibit the First Nation smudging ceremony, common at Powwows and other gatherings.

Mieske said that hadn’t been considered in the wording of the bylaw and she’d research the matter before bringing a report to Council.

 

• • •

On March 26, Mayor Ron Higgins sent an email to Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith asking about Central’s plans to fix potholes on Road 509 and Ardoch Road.

“How’d you make out?” said Dep. Mayor Fred Perry.

“You saw her response,” said Higgins.

“Although they did do some work,” said Coun. Gerry Martin.

“I didn’t agree with this action at all,” said Coun. John Inglis. “It was unnecessary and the tone wsas insulting.”

For the record, here are the two emails.

From Higgins to Smith:

“Frances, I was asked by Council to contact you about the road condition of 509 (near Ardoch Road) and 2-3 bad spots on Ardoch Road. We have been getting a number of residents asking if we knew what Central Frontenac was considering with regards to repair. They are concerned about vehicle damage due to bad road conditions.

“Would it be possible to provide us with any plans your Township has in regards to this issue?”

Smith’s response:

“Good morning Ron. I think it is the swamp on the flat that you are talking about. We are quite aware of it and as soon as the thaw permits, we will be dealing with it.”

 

• • •

With about a dozen members of the public in attendance at the meeting, Mayor Ron Higgins asked for a motion to move the public question period up on the agenda so that those members of the public who wished to could comment on the question of ANSIs (Area of Natural or Scientific Interest) in North Frontenac’s Zoning Bylaw could be heard.

Only Coun. Wayne Good voted against the measure.

Later in the meeting, Council voted to end the restriction that a public question period only be permitted if the Council meeting takes under three hours.

North’s meetings commonly exceed three hours. By comparison, Central and South meetings rarely exceed two hours and South has one or two meetings a year under a half hour.

 

• • •

In response to Kerry Skipper’s request for a Pickleball court in Cloyne, Coun. Fred Fowler challenged Dep. Mayor Fred Perry to the first game.

Fowler declined to offer Perry some sort of handicap even though Perry recently had surgery on his leg.

Pickleball is a racquet sport combining elements of badminton, tennis and ping pong using a whiffleball of some sort.

Published in NORTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 28 February 2018 12:31

Foundation Grant to Look into Recreation Centre

Thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation For Kingston and Area, the group/township subcommittee working to turn the former Hinchinbrooke school into a recreation and cultural centre has been able to engage Social Focus Consulting to help do a business plan for township council.

The first step is a two part survey of community interest in such a centre and your ideas about what it should include plus a survey of groups and organizations that might use it and provide programs there. The survey should take about 5-10 minutes to complete.

For those who live and/or work within the Township, complete this survey: http://bit.ly/Hinchinbrooke1

For those who are senior decision makers within organizations that serve the Township, please complete this survey too: http://bit.ly/Hinchinbrooke2.

You may have already seen the surveys on Facebook or been given them at a meeting. In order to get more responses there is a new deadline of March 7th so the links to do the survey could be published here in the newspaper.

Your answers will be anonymous. If you need a paper copy you can get one printed for you at the township office, the Frontenac News or from the following group members:

  • Janet Anderson 613-375-9280
  • Bob Teal 613-375-6525
  • Sue Leslie 613-483-5695
Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC
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With the participation of the Government of Canada