Feature Article October 30, 2003
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Frontenac Stewardship Council Looking NorthThe Frontenac Stewardship Council will now be active throughout Frontenac County, its newly-appointed coordinator Bret Colman told township councilors in North Frontenac this week.
Until this past summer, the stewardship councils followed the regional districts of the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), and North and much of Central Frontenac came under the Bancroft regional office.
With the hiring of Colman, who previously worked in Elgin County, it was decided to solidify the Council on County lines, and Colman appeared before NF Council, seeking interest and a presence on the councils board from the township.
He acknowledged there has been frustration among the board members of the Frontenac Stewardship Council due to the fact the coordinator position, which is funded by the MNR, has been vacant for a period of time, and without the coordinator it is hard for volunteers to push projects forward, Colman acknowledged. In fact, the volunteer board is down to four members at this point, but Colman is hoping to have five or six new members in place by the end of November.
Forty Stewardship Councils were set up in 1995 when the provincial government pulled back from having the MNR do conservation work. They are run by volunteer boards who control the direction they would like to take within the broad framework of fostering environmental stewardship in rural Ontario. They receive the services of a coordinator and $10,000 per year in funding. Brett Colman told Council that the $10,000 is really only seed money, and in Elgin we were able to raise about $300,000 per year through granting agencies for different projects.
In a later interview with The News, Colman said he would like to see the Frontenac Stewardship Council expand from its focus on landowner awareness programs into the direction of habitat work. I think we could explore the possibility of a Beaver Pond Management plan in the North end of the County. As well, there are two projects on Wolfe Island that are being set up for this fall.
As to funding programs, Colman noted several potential sources. We can dip into Federal and Provincial pots of money. the province has a Healthy Futures Program, the federal government has Eco Access, and from the private sector there is Ducks Unlimited and the Friends of the Environment Foundation. Colman also said he has been fairly successful in accessing funding from the Trillium Foundation.
Judging from the number of business cards handed out by Bret Colman at the NF Council meeting, there is a great interest in putting his grant-writing skills to the test to get stewardship projects up and running in the north.
BUILDING REPORT Building Inspector Ken Lindey provided council with preliminary information about construction levels in the township for the year. As of now, a total of $4,715,000 of construction has been undertaken in the township, and Mayor Johnston said we should see the total run to $5 million again this year, which we need if we are hoping to keep property taxes down. As of now there have been 172 applications for building permits this year, and $60,000 has been received by the township in permit fees.
GRANT FOR PHONE ANSWERING SYSTEM A proposal was brought to council to apply for a grant of $5,000 to put an automated answering system in place for the township. Councilor Dave Smith was assured by township Chief Administrative Officer Penny Sharman that the phones will continue to be answered by township staff during business hours, but that individual staff members, particularly the building inspector, who works part time, will have voice mail boxes in order to receive messages when they are away from the office. The system will also be in place to provide Voicemail outside of business hours. The township will need to do something in this regard in order to conform to the current emergency management legislation within the province. Penny Sharman reminded council how difficult it was when the microburst hit last year. We could have used this then. No decision was made as to how Council should proceed if the grant money is not available for the system.
