Feature Article,June 24, 2004
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Kingston two-year budget plan makes County nervousFairmount Home ready to open (notes from County Council)A letter to Frontenac County from Kingston Mayor Harvey Rosen concerning a multi-year budgeting strategy for the city has set the ambulance budget for 2004 at $4.2 million, a net increase of 2.5% over the current year, and asks the County to provide by the end of June 2004 at the latest, an indication of how you will achieve the above expenditure levels within the 2005 budget envelope indicated above.
The letter was considered at a County Council meeting on June 16.
Mayor Bill MacDonald of Central Frontenac, who sits on the board of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, and Mayor Ron Maguire of North Frontenac, who sits on the board of the Kingston Frontenac Health Unit, both wondered how the city would impose their budget numbers on the library and the health unit, which do their own budgeting and have those budgets approved by the city, the county and the province.
County warden Jim Vanden Hoek then made reference to a report on first quarter results to the County council by Emergency Services Co-ordinator Shawn Carby, which outlined how efficiencies have been achieved that have brought ambulance response times down, but also concludes If the County is to achieve the legislated emergency response guideline, more operational resources will be necessary.
For that reason, Warden Vanden Hoek said I think wed better respond to this letter from the city of Kingston carefully, as we are set on achieving the emergency response guidelines and will need to consider an increased budget in order to do so.
It was decided that rather than respond immediately to the citys letter, County council would wait and consider the matter at their next meeting to decide on an appropriate response.
Other County issues
Land Ambulance 1st quarter report
The County began operating the land ambulance system for itself and the City of Kingston on January 1 of this year, and instituted a minimum emergency coverage system in February. Emergency Services coordinator Shawn Carby has been closely monitoring the system since that time, and attempting to institute efficiencies to improve response times.
The overall response times in the first quarter of 2004 as compared to the first quarter of 2003 show an improvement of 1 minute and 25 seconds - from 16 minutes 23 seconds to 14 minutes and 58 seconds. The response times are naturally lower in the City of Kingston and higher in the area served by the Parham and Wolfe Island ambulance services. The legislated target for response times, determined by the province of Ontario according to the response times in the first quarter of 1996, is 13 minutes and 28 seconds, so the system is still 1.5 minutes slower on average than the target. While the response times target was not being met either by the province when they ran the system in the late 90s, or under contracts between the County and services at Hotel Dieu hospital, Parham, and Wolfe Island in the last three years, the 1996 percentile would be consistent with a North American Standard and the province expects us to work towards achieving it. It can be attained, but it is not going to be attained with the resources we have, Carby told County council.
Shawn Carby will not be around to see if the system can be improved further. He is resigning his position after 14 months and returning to a job in Victoria BC. He told Council that his parents live back in Victoria and it is important for him to return at this time.
In acknowledging Carbys resignation, Warden Vanden Hoek told him, You came in at an extremely critical time for us. The transition was a challenge, and certainly the professionalism that you brought to the table and the reporting youve done is outstanding.
Fairmount renovation almost complete
Patrick Thomson, who has been working for the County as project Manager for the Fairmount home renovations made his final report to County Council.
Thomson first thanked council for the opportunity to be involved in the project. He then reported that the final cost of the project would be coming in at between $15.25 and $15.30 million. The original value of the project was $14.71 million, so the final cost is about $370,000 over budget or about 3.5%. Thomson said for a project like this, which had unique features due to the retrofitting of an older building, that 3.5% is not considered unusual. Typically, the Canadian Construction Association projects a 5% overrun.
The project had built in a 5% overrun to its budget as a contingency.
From a scheduling perspective, we will be open at the end of June, Thomson reported, when we had originally hoped to be done by the end of November. Thomson said this had been caused by a late start in 2002, and some labour shortage problems. There was also difficulty with the owner of the construction company, although the supervisor of building construction was very good, according to Thomson.
Warden Vanden Hoek thanked Patrick Thomson for his efforts, and commented that the decision to hire him had been a very good one considering the complexity of the project.
