Feature Article December 8,2003
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Addington Highlands Council meeting: January 5/04
The first Addington Highlands Council meeting of 2004 in Flinton was a decidedly low-key affair compared to the packed meeting with Hydro Officials that ended 2003.
Enza Cancilla of Ontario Hydro wrote to Reeve Hook thanking him for the opportunity for Ontario Hydro to address council and residents. The letter acknowledged that recent outages and dealings with our call centre caused some frustration amongst your ratepayers and it was important for us to meet you and hear those concerns first hand. The letter also made reference to the fact that some community concerns may not have been addressed. Here Cancilla refers to 10 pointed questions sent from Bill Brown to Ontario Hydro after the December 15 meeting. Some of the questions concerned whether or not there actually were planned outages about which hydro customers were not notified; why forestry crews are so far behind in their tree trimming; why Mr. Brown received a rebate of his November service charge, while other similarly affected customers did not.
Mr. Cancilla wrote that Mr. Brown will receive answers to his questions. Bill Brown, who attended the January 5 meeting, said he is waiting to receive answers, in writing, to his questions.
Rules of Procedure: The rules of procedure for the corporation of Addington Highlands have been updated. Most of the changes that have been made are of a housekeeping nature, trying to make the procedures fit actual practice. Remuneration for councillors, the Reeve, and the Deputy Reeve have not been changes, but the mileage rate for members of council for travel to all functions has been raised to 38 cents per kilometre from 32 cents.
MPAC: At the council meeting scheduled for January 19 in Denbigh, a representative from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation will be available to Council to explain the final results of the property assessment process in the township for the 2004 tax year. Council considered whether to request that at the same time a presentation could be made by MPAC for the benefit of the general public on how property assessment is carried out in Ontario. Councillors Eythel Grant and Louise Scott both said they have been hearing from ratepayers who will be facing large tax increases as a result of their properties being reassessed. Some of them are business that are just hanging on by their toe-nails, said Louise Scott. After some discussion, it was decided that an Open House format rather than a Council meeting would be preferable for a presentation by MPAC to the public. Open Houses will be arranged, probably one in Denbigh and one in Flinton, in the next few weeks.
ATVs on Public Roads - A letter was received from the Ontario All Terrain Vehicle Association, requesting that Addington Highlands consider a bylaw similar to one in the Township of Bonfield which permits the operation of certain kinds of All Terrain Vehicles on public roads. New provincial regulations make it legal to drive four wheel ATVs with steering handlebars and a straddled seat, that meet certain standards and are designed to carry a driver only, on certain provincial roadways.
Reeve Hook expressed concern that the township could face unknown liabilities in any cases of accidents on township roads involving ATVs. AH will not be considering a bylaw permitting ATVs on public roads.
