Central Frontenac Council - Oct 23/12

Jeff Green | Oct 25, 2012

Clock is ticking for Parham Library branch 

The Parham library branch is located in a portable classroom attached to Hinchinbrooke Public School, and with the school being slated to close as early as June 30 next year, members of Central Frontenac Council are starting to wake up to the fact that some planning will need to be done on their part to keep a branch open in Parham or vicinity.

Councilor John Purdon, who is the Frontenac County Council representative to the Library Board, sounded the alarm.

“The rural branches are just as busy as the urban branches are, on a per capita basis, but in terms of total use the numbers are low, and once the school closes in Parham the numbers may get lower. We can't have the services in the small branches that they have in the big branches, and the trend is towards more services, more programming and bigger branches. The tendency in recommendations to the board is continually towards decreasing rural branches. I don’t agree, but I would say we need to fix our facilities so we can maintain services. We don’t own the Parham branch; it is on school board property. So we have to think about purchasing the portable and setting it up at some location off the school property. But that is something we need to get going on,” Purdon said.

Earlier, in response to a question from Councilor Norm Guntensperger about the viability of the Mountain Grove branch and the possibility of moving it to a new location, perhaps in an addition to the Mountain Grove Fire Hall, Township Chief Administrative Officer Shawn Trépanier said the former township office building that is currently housing the library “is not safe”, a statement he retracted a few minutes later.

“We have not had any reports declaring that building unsafe,” Mayor Janet Gutowski reminded council. “It has its challenges but there is nothing about it being unsafe. As far as library branches are concerned, we need to recognise that we have not been paying any of the costs of the Parham branch until now, because the school board has covered it, so whatever we do will increase the budget. We need to do our strategic plan, and we need to determine if we can afford to have one of everything in all four of the districts.”

"This council has already taken a position on four districts, four library branches. To revisit that would take a 2/3 majority vote,” said Guntensperger.

Councilor Snyder interrupted. “Parham has a problem right now. We need to start looking at this right away,” he said.

Inching towards County Roads

Public Works Manager Mike Richardson reported that at their second combined meeting, the public works managers from all four Frontenac County townships discussed the possibility of seeking to have Road 38, and Highways 506/509 and 95 on Wolfe Island treated as county roads in granting applications, freeing up their host township to seek grants for other priorities.

Richardson said that the first step will be to combine the road usage and level of repair information that each township gathers already.

“North, Central and South Frontenac all use the same program and the same engineering firm, Golder, so we will be asking them what would be involved in combining the information. Mark Segsworth, the works manager in South Frontenac, will be having traffic counts down on Road 38 all the way to Highway 7, and maybe on 509 as well. There has been some interest from senior management at the Ministry of Transportation to look at this further,” he said.

Clean those recyclables

In a report to council on the state of the waste management system, co-ordinator Kyle Labbett reported that recycling levels have increased substantially since the clear bag garbage system came into place in April, but this has brought another problem to the fore, contaminated recycling, which ends up costing the township money in lost revenue from its recycling contractor.

“To fix this problem we will be having the site attendants sort through recycling with residents to ensure that only recyclable items are ending up in the bins. We will also be starting an education program with residents to ensure that recycling is being rinsed out prior to coming to the waste sites. This will also be done by sorting through recycling and educating the residents,” Labbett said in his report to Council.

Property standards are back – Council was presented with two options for an updated property standards/safe property bylaw. Council rejected one of them as too stringent for a rural municipality and even saw some issues with the looser bylaw. CAO Trépanier will work through the bylaw and use it to update the existing safe properties bylaw and will bring it back to council.

Planning matters finalised – With the appeal of the Bridgen’s Island plan of subdivision having been rejected by the Ontario Municipal Board, the township went ahead with a bylaw giving final approval to a zoning bylaw amendment for the subdivision.

Kennebec Lake subdivision – Just before the appeal period ran out, Mark Sobanski lodged an appeal of the plan of subdivision for the development of building lots in the former Baker Valley property on Kennebec Lake. Planning Co-ordinator Cathy MacMunn said that the township could go ahead and approve a zoning bylaw amendment in the matter, and both the zoning amendment and the subdivision approval will be considered by the Ontario Municipal Board at the same time, which Council did.

Sharbot Lake Farmers Market report

In a delegation to council, Mary de Bassecourt and Peggy Green reported a very successful year at the Sharbot Lake Farmers Market. Market Manager de Bassecourt reported that vendor numbers, attendance and vendor sales were up this year. Annual sales rose from $31,500 last year to $43,600 this year and on one single market day on August 4, 393 people visited. Word of mouth and regular advertising are what attracted the crowds. Marker vendor Peggy Green extended her thanks to council for securing the beach as the location. “I think the location is a win/win situation for everyone. We enjoy the visitors and the visitors enjoy us and that makes for a lovely combination.”

Night time Santa Parade in Tichborne?

Councilor Bill Snyder said organizers of the Tichborne/Parham Santa Claus parade are hoping to make the parade an after-dark event this year. After some discussion regarding safety issues, CAO Shawn Trépanier said he would speak to Public Works Manager Mike Richardson, the OPP and emergency services to insure that safety for participants and parade goers would not be compromised. He said he would have an answer at council's next meeting on November 13.

Guard rails pose safety issue at Hwy 7 and Arden Road

Councilor Jeff Matson brought to council's attention a safety issue posed by the height of the guardrails on the south side of Highway 7, which run east of the Arden Road. Matson pointed out that due to the slope in the Arden Road at that intersection, drivers who are exiting the Arden Road onto Hwy 7 and either heading straight across it or turning west onto the highway have difficulty seeing the oncoming traffic traveling west on the highway.

“A few people have pointed it out to me and I drove by there myself and saw that they are right. You have to peer through the rails to try to see the oncoming traffic along Hwy 7”.

Staff were directed to bring up the issue with the MTO.