Feature Article August 21, 2002
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CF Council talks about childcare, policing and speed signsby Jeff GreenThe agenda was heavy at the August 12 meeting in Mountain Grove, as council held its only regularly scheduled August meeting for 2002.Early Years Centre - Brenda Martin addressed council as the community champion for the provincial governments Early Years Centre initiative. Martin has been making the rounds of councils within the provincial riding of Hastings, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (HFL&A) describing the process she is directing which will determine how to establish an Early Years Centre within the riding. The government has charged her and her 25-member committee with choosing a lead agency, which, along with affiliated or satellite agencies, is to deliver a range of childrens resource services throughout the riding. Martin explained that there are three existing Childrens Resource centres in the riding that are well enough established to consider taking on the lead agency role. These three are in Napanee, Bancroft, and Sharbot Lake. It didnt take much of a geography lesson for Martin to demonstrate how far flung the riding and the three centres are. It would make sense, in the thinking of Martin and her committee, for the three centres to share responsibility for the Early Years Centre. KFL&A is a vast, under-populated riding, Martin told council, and it may need three early years centres. This is not, however, the way the province has been establishing these centres in other ridings, but Martin is hoping to convince the Ministry of Community and Family Services to do so in this case. In order for the ministry to consider the proposal we are preparing, they will probably insist on us setting up an Advisory Board that would oversee all the activities.
Mayor MacDonald asked how CF council could help Brenda Martin in the process. Martin said the resource centre (in Sharbot Lake) may need an addition - not a new building , but an addition, and we may be looking for council to support a building proposal.
Councillor Marsden Kirk asked if the funding the provincial government was committing to this process will deal with new buildings. Martin responded, There is $150,000 available for renovations. We are not however, setting anything up that will bring about a high degree of administrative costs. The new money coming into childrens resources is to be spent on programmes for children to the greatest extent possible, and is only intended to add to existing services, not replace them.
Zoning bylaw - Olin Beach: Among the information items available at the meeting was a letter dated July 25 from Mark Phillips of the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing approving the Official Plan for the township of Central Frontenac. There is an opportunity to appeal the decision of the ministry, but only until August 14, just two days after the council meeting that received all the information about the appeal processThe new zoning bylaw for Central Frontenac, which is integrally related to the Official Plan, came up for approval.
Before the bylaw came up for passage, however, council heard from property owner Olin Beach, who owns two building lots in a historically zoned subdivision on Kennebec Lake. Mr. Beach had sent a letter to township planner Cathy MacMunn concerning the status of his lots once the new zoning bylaw comes into being. He was informed in a letter from Ms. MacMunn dated July 31, that under the new bylaw, "existing lots of record which are less than 1,950 sq. m (20,990 sq. ft) will be considered unsuitable for development."
Mr. Beach told council the two lots have been zoned as waterfront building lots ever since the subdivision on Kennebec was created, and he has been taxed accordingly, at an assessment rate of $110,000 per acre. All the other lots in the subdivision have been built on. Beach was asking council to exempt his lots from the new bylaw, which was unavailable for viewing even though it was being voted upon at the meeting. Council refused the request, but told Mr. Beach he could apply for a variance to the bylaw if and when he did want to build on the lots.
In a later interview, Olin Beach informed the News that he was in the process of appealing his tax assessment on the two lots for the current tax year, and urged anyone who may be in the same situation to do the same.
Policing contract: A motion was made to maintain the status quo between Central Frontenac and the OPP and not enter into a policing contract. It was pointed out in discussion that the contract price was substantially higher than the status quo price, which is based on fee-for-service. As well, councillor Marsden Kirk mentioned that a Police Services Board would have to be set up by the township, at a cost of about $10,000 a year, if the contract option was chosen. The motion was carried.Speed limit signs in Mountain Grove: Public Works manager Bill Nicol brought a petition forwarded to him from councillor Elva Price concerning the lack of speed limit signage in Mountain Grove. Nicol informed council there is only one 50 kph sign in the village, and he recommended that new signs be posted on Mountain Grove Road, Brock Road, Mill Road, at the intersection of Long Lake and Mountain Grove Roads, and that two existing Watch for children signs be upgraded. Most of the work can be done without delay, but the 50 kph signs on Mill Road will require a bylaw amendment to enforce, and this will have to be done in the near future.
