Back to HomeFeature Article - October 29, 2009 North Frontenac  CouncilBy Jeff Green

North Frontenac Crown roads to be accessed by ATV tourists

It's a matter of third time lucky for the Eastern Ontario Trails Association (EOTA).

The ATV tourism association based in Tweed has developed an extensive trail network in Eastern Ontario. It has approached North Frontenac Township at least twice before, seeking to include a series of roads and trails that the township manages for the Ministry of Natural Resources, without success.

The roads and trails are located on Crown land but are managed by the township under an agreement with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), called the Crown Land Stewardship Program (CLSP). The township sells permits to use the roads, which access waterfront properties and wilderness campgrounds, and in 2008 raised almost $24,000 through the sale of permits.

This money, in addition to some small grants from the MNR, was used for maintenance on those roads, but the township has never been able to raise enough money to adequately maintain the roads and trails, leading to complaints from ratepayers who use them to access their properties.

In the past North Frontenac has been concerned about lost income if the EOTA passes were accepted in place of the township’s own road permits, and about the wear and tear that increased ATV tourism might bring to the often muddy trails and roads.

A change in the township’s position came in September, when Deputy Mayor Jim Beam and Corey Klatt, the staff member who supervises the Crown land roads for the township, met with Cindy Cassidy of the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance.

As the result of that meeting, EOTA has offered to pay $14,000 as a one-time grant to cover repairs the township made to one of the Crown land roads this year, and going forward, EOTA will guarantee the $24,000 annually that the township currently receives from selling passes.

In his report to council regarding the proposal, Cory Klatt noted several potential benefits to the scheme, including: inclusion of the North Frontenac trails in the EOTA trail map which is “extensively circulated throughout Ontario”; increased income; improved signage; enhanced OPP monitoring; and economic development opportunities for local businesses due to an increase in the use of local trails.

Klatt proposed that the township enter into an agreement with EOTA, which would be subject to review at the end of next year, and each year after that.

Council accepted the proposal at their meeting last week (October 22). Corey Klatt will represent the township on the EOTA Board of Directors.

NEW PLEVNA LIBRARY BRANCH TAKING SHAPE – limited space available for archives.

Ever since mould was found in the Clarendon and Miller Hall in Plevna almost two years ago, there has been no library branch in the central part of North Frontenac Township.

As time passed and the situation in the hall was finally determined to be irresolvable, it became apparent an alternate location would have to be found. A portable classroom became available and the township transferred it to a property that was formerly occupied by the Ministry of Natural Resources. It was hoped that the building would also be able to provide increased space for the Clarendon and Miller Community Archives, which occupied a closet in the old building.

The township has done extensive work preparing the building for use, including the construction of a handicapped accessible washroom. In addition, two extra computer stations were added to the branch as public high-speed internet stations, which will also take up space.

The Kingston Frontenac Public Library operates the branch, which is linked to 14 other branches in the library system. The library board has invested $30,000 in flooring, shelving, computer desks and furniture for the building. They will also be supplying materials to the branch, as well staffing it and paying internet costs.

The township will pay for staffing for increased time in the building so the public can access the extra computers, in accordance with a commitment the township has made under the Rural Connections Broadband Program.

With the large (90 square foot) bathroom, the branch will only have 623 square feet of usable space, almost all of which is required for library use, and in a report to council, township staff recommended that only a limited amount of space be devoted to the Clarendon and Miller Community Archives, in the hopes that a larger space can be found to house the archives in the future.

The report was accepted by council.

Other notes from NF Council:

There is a surplus of more than $20,000 in the township’s wildfire budget this year. Because of an unusually wet summer, only $514 was spent out of the $20,600 budget.

Township Fire Chief Steve Riddell recommended that $15,000 of the $20,000 left over be spent on new pumps for township fire crews. The current pumps take 10 minutes to fill the township’s tanker trucks. The new pumps, which have a capacity of 550 gallons a minute, will be able to do the job in half the time.

“It's very frustrating for an incident commander to be able to see water, but not be able to access it because they don’t have the right equipment,” Riddell said in support of this request.

He also pointed out that the township put $25,000 aside to reimburse the Ministry of Natural Resources for any possible use of their resources to fight wildfires this year, and none of that money was used, so the township’s wildfire reserve fund will still see a healthy increase due to the wet summer even if the pumps are purchased.

Council granted Riddell's request.

Robertsville culvert project – Council gave staff leave to open a tender document for the reconstruction project, and installation of a large culvert on Robertsville Road. The project, which is supported by a $300,000 infrastructure stimulus grant, needs to be completed before the onset of winter. The tender, which will be opened on October 29, will be granted by the CAO in conjunction with the project manager. 

Back to HomeFeature Article - September 24, 2009 Frontenac County CouncilBy Jeff Green

County trails plan approved

A draft Frontenac County Trails Master Plan and a Trails Implementation plan were both approved by county council at their meeting on September 16 and are going forward to public meetings in Verona and Sharbot Lake.

Councilors did not have a lot to say about the master plan, but the implementation plan, which includes an inventory of development costs totalling $1.1 million for a trail that runs along the old K&P line in South and Central Frontenac, but is silent on where that money is supposed to come from, provoked comments from Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek and North Frontenac Mayor Ron Maguire.

“I think that there must be some commitment of funds from the host townships,” said Vanden Hoek.

“At the time we were applying for the initial grant we were assured the $289,000 grant would cover the whole project. Now we are looking at an implementation plan of over $1 million ... I am reluctant to go to the public with this if it means taxpayers from across the county will be on the hook for this,” said Maguire.

“I have a different perspective on this,” said Warden Janet Gutowski. “I don't think there was an expectation that the grant money would be sufficient to develop the trails. The funding has yet to be sorted out. That's why the implementation is to be phased.”

“I know that we need a commitment on the local level to get this thing going,” said South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison.

North Frontenac Deputy Mayor Jim Beam and South Frontenac Township Councilor Alan McPhail, both members of the committee that put the trails reports together, were given leave to comment, and they both said the committee did not envision that any county taxation money would go towards trails implementation.

“There was never any intent that county ratepayers would be funding this project,” said Beam. “It was the expectation that a user-pay model and other funding sources such as grants would be the means of paying for this.”

“We have had representation from the Cataraqui Trail and the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance on our committee, and while those trails have very different models, they are both operated without municipal dollars. We recognise there must be a partnership with the townships, but not necessarily for the tax dollar,” said Alan McPhail.

“That is comforting to me,” said Mayor Vanden Hoek.

In a related matter, the county has agreed to build just over 1 km of fence on a section of the trail located between Hartington and Harrowsmith, at a cost of $15,000 provided a cost sharing agreement can be reached with the adjacent landowner

Spending of federal gas tax funds – Frontenac County has been the recipient of federal gas tax rebate monies for four years, and has been in the process of determining how to spend that money for most of that time.

By the terms of the funding agreement, $475,000, the allocation from 2005-2005, must be spent by the end of 2009. At this point the County has only allocated $365,000.

Council decided to accept a staff recommendation that $110,000 be allocated to the local townships to pay for new infrastructure projects. Certain conditions will apply, but county council agreed to transfer the money.

Some townships need help with inventory project – By the end of this year, municipalities throughout Ontario are required to have completed an inventory of all public assets for something called the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB). Mayor Davison from South Frontenac asked if the county would consider hiring a consultant, using some of the federal gas tax money that is still available, to help complete this project for South Frontenac, which will not be able to complete it in time. County Treasurer Marian Vanbruinessen said that she had talked to Central and North Frontenac, and determined that while North Frontenac will be able to manage on its own, Central Frontenac needs some help. Frontenac Islands Mayor Vanden Hoek determined that Frontenac Islands also needed help.

It was decided that $30,000 should cover the cost of a consultant, and that North Frontenac Township should not be penalized for having their work completed, so they will be compensated.

Northern ambulance decision deferred - In a report to council, Frontenac County Director of Emergency Services Paul Charbonneau recommended that a new ambulance base be built in the “Ardoch Road/509 area”.

Based on the data that has been collected, Charbonneau's report said that the proposed location would be the closest to the majority of calls the ambulance has received over the past 2 years.

In response, North Frontenac Mayor Maguire said, “North Frontenac Council passed a resolution rejecting the consultant’s report that this location is based on, and we have not received a formal response. Prior to making any decision on this northern base we want that response.”

“I agree with Mayor Maguire,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek. “I'm a little reluctant to support a base in what I call a vacant area. Public infrastructure should be located where the people are. My understanding is that staff have drawn a spot on a map.”

“It's very objective,” said Paul Charbonneau, “very statistical.”

“I would like to think that we can defer this,” said South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison. “I understand it is a very delicate issue and it is very difficult to know by drawing a circle.”

The matter was tabled. 

Back to HomeFeature Article - August 27, 2009 County Trails committee back On TrackBy Jeff Green

The Frontenac County Trails Committee, which has been working on a County Trails Master Plan until the appointees from three of the four townships in the county resigned abruptly in June, is back on track.

Jim Beam (North Frontenac), Gary Smith (Central Frontenac) and Dennis Doyle (Frontenac Islands) all resigned from the committee because they felt the committee had been bypassed when the draft master plan was presented directly to council in early June.

In July, county council rescinded a motion from June in which they received the draft report. Earlier this month, Jim Beam and Dennis Doyle met with county council, along with County Economic Development Manager Anne Marie Young, to talk about the committee’s future, and as result of that meeting, the three members have now rejoined the committee.

In an email letter to Frontenac County Warden Janet Gutowski on Tuesday, August 25, North Frontenac Deputy Mayor Jim Beam wrote: “Denis and I, as well as Gary, even though he wasn't able to be there, wish to thank members of County Council for allowing us to speak at the last County Council meeting and express our views on how to move the Frontenac Trails Committee (FTC) ahead. The positive reaction to Denis' suggestions give us reason to believe that the committee can get the task completed in a timely manner to the satisfaction of all involved.

“We have made note of the concern about adjacent landowners being involved in the implementation plan decisions and are sure that every opportunity will be provided to them for their input.

“Because of this renewed attempt at cooperation, Denis, Gary and I are withdrawing our resignations from the FTC.”

Back to HomeLetters - June 25, 2009Letters: June 25

Madam Warden, I beg leave to rise and speak, Jim Beam

Madam Warden, I beg leave to rise and speak

Just nine little words from an elected township councilor at a joint county council meeting on Wednesday, June 17. One wouldn't think that it was an outrageous request to ask to speak under "Other Business"; I mean, why not hear what township councilors, the elected representatives of the communities of Frontenac County have to say?

I rose to speak to the County Trails Master Plan that had been presented to the warden and mayors during their regular session of council earlier in the day. I would have liked to speak to the ICSP document, the governance farce and the ambulance review but thought the warden might let me speak to the trail issue, as I had mentioned to her during the break that I would like to address that issue. Perhaps it was just an issue of time as the Frontenac Islands mayor had to catch the ferry back and was not due to a lack of respect for elected officials! I mean, we had an hour-long presentation about providing Accessibility Customer Service and showing respect and understanding to persons with disabilities so surely that wouldn't have been the reason!

I am, or rather was until I resigned last week, a member of the trails committee that spent many months working on the Master Plan prior to  it being submitted. The problem is that the document was submitted to county senior staff, reviewed, edited, returned to staff, and then submitted to county council, all without being shared with the committee! To rub even a bit more salt in the wound, the two recommendations direct "staff" to do follow up activities, totally ignoring the trails committee. The final straw was a list of the organizations, departments and individuals consulted and/or affected that made no mention whatsoever of the trails committee.

I must ask the question, who is really running the show at Frontenac County? Those who are the elected representatives? Or staff?

Jim Beam, Deputy Mayor,Township of North Frontenac

Back to HomeFeature Article - June 25, 2009 Frontenac County Councilby Jeff Green

Frontenac County Trails Master Plans faces opposition from without, and now within.

The Frontenac Trails Master Plan, which was presented in draft form to Frontenac County Council at their June meeting, was slated to be received for information and discussed next month along with a staff prepared implementation plan.

The plan talks in general terms about a number of existing trails within the county, and touches only slightly on the most contentious trail, which has been the subject of considerable work by the Frontenac County Trails Committee, the proposed K&P trail between the boundary of the city of Kingston and the hamlet of Sharbot Lake.

The impetus for the County trails committee, which has included council members from each of the four Frontenac County townships, along with County staff, came when the County received a grant from the province to purchase the K&P rail line from Bell Canada.

The K&P trail, as an idea, has been around for years, and has been dogged by controversy. Some people who own land abutting the trail are concerned about trespassing, and about noise.

Who will pay for fencing, where necessary, has never been resolved, nor has the issue of whether the trail should be accessible to motorized vehicles or not.

Coincident with the release of the draft trails report, Bill Murnighan, whose vacation property on St. Andrews Lake (north of Godfrey) sent a package of information to the County and the media voicing his opposition, and that of his neighbours to a motorized trail in the vicinity of the lake.

Murninghan told the News that he has received no response from a letter opposing motorized trails that he sent to the County back on January 22nd, which was signed by himself and 14 others, prompting him to start up a website www.kandplandowners.com which includes an online petition.

Although there were meetings held with adjacent landowners, Murninghan says people who opposed motorized trails should have been represented on the trails committee itself.

“There is a representative from Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance, who are marketers of ATV trail usage, on the committee, but no one from the other side. An adjacent landowner should have been invited,” he said.

When Murninghan's letter was raised at the County table, Warden Janet Gurtowski said, “I didn’t receive on email from this gentleman, but he had the opportunity for consultation. I'm surprised there was a group.

Although County Council was not surprised by the opposition from landowner's who are concerned about the potential implications of the trail, they could not have expected that at three of the four council representatives on the trails committee would be leaving the committee in the wake of last week's Council meeting.

In a letter to Warden Gutowski, Central Frontenac Deputy Mayor Gary Smith outlined his grievances with concerning the Master Plan, particularly the way it was brought to the county council table by County staff before being presented to the committee, and the fact that implementation is to be handled by staff and not the committee.

To make matters worse, according to Smith, “when the Deputy Mayor of North Frontenac rose and asked to speak (on the trails issue et al) he was rebuffed by County Council.

“Instead Councillors sat and listened to two one hour staff presentations whose watch words were 'consultations with stakeholders and 'respect'. Township Councilors received neither of these ... As the result I have decided to resign immediately as a representative of Central Frontenac on the trails committee.”

Jim Beam, the Deputy Mayor of North Frontenac, refers to his own decision to resign from the committee in a letter to this the Frontenac News (Letters, The Frontenac News,  June 25/09).

Dennis Doyle, Councillor from Frontenac Islands, has also resigned from the committee.

“The report was supposed to be a committee report to Council. When it became clear it was really a staff report to Council, to be implemented by staff, there was no longer any role for the committee,” Doyle said.

Councilor Alan Mcphail, from South Frontenac Township, remains on the committee, although he told the News that he understands some of the frustrations that are felt by other members of the committee.

“I'm willing to give County staff the benefit of doubt,” he said, “and consider that some of what happened was the result of unintentional oversight as the draft was rushed to the County table.”

All four members of the committee expressed regret that the committee, which they all said had been a model of co-operation between politicians from all corners of the township, has ended on such a sour note.

It is unclear what will happen to the trails committee now that it has lost three township representatives.

Governance not on the County agenda in June

Frontenac County Council did not debate governance last week, and it is unclear when the matter will come to the table

Resolutions from all four constituent townships of the County, all aimed at promoting a change in the composition of the four member County Council to 8 or 9 members after the municupal election in 2010, were marked as “items for action” on the Frontenac County agenda last week (June 17).

When the item came up, only North Frontenac Mayor Ron Maguire thought action should be taken.

“The endorsements of the notion to increase the composition of county council is overwhelming,” he said “The future would be well served if we acted on this.

South Frontenac Mayor Gary Dacvison was hesitant to endorse a proposal, put forward by his own council, that would give South Frontenac 3 members on a 9 member Council, and each of the other townships two members.

“I remember saying that my first choice is 8 members, with the two South Frontenac members having two votes. With 58% of the population, it seems like an imbalance for South Frontenac to have less than 40% of the vote.”

“I wasn't aware that we were going to have this item on the agenda,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek. We have the balance of the year to deal with this. I think we need to think about this a bit more.”

“I agree wholeheartedly that we need more time to discuss this,” said Warden Janet Gutowski. “I don't have a proposition for a bylaw at this time.”

“After hearing all of you, I'm not talking,” said Ron Maguire.

There was no direction to staff on the matter.

For a change in County Council composition to take effect in time for the 2010 election, a bylaw must be proposed by Conty Council and must be brought to at least one public meeting before being approved by County Council. It must then be ratified by the majority of the four Frontenac townships representing the majority of the population, before the end of December 2009.

County council has meetings scheduled for July, September, October, November and December, but they can meet at any other time at the call of the Warden.

Back to HomeFeature Article - May 7, 2009 Love-in over ATV trails in Sharbot Lake.By Jeff Green

If everyone took the same view as the audience at an open meeting over the proposed K&P trail in Sharbot Lake last week, (April 30), a multi-purpose trail allowing everything from hikers, to snow machines and ATVs and everything in between, would be approved in a flash from the border between South and Central Frontenac and Sharbot Lake.

That's the kind of trails that are run by the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance, a Tweed-based group that runs a network of trails from Hastings County to the Quebec border. Much of the funding for the EOTA trails system comes from the sale of ATV passes and the growing ATV touring market.

Most of the people at the meeting expressed support for the EOTA model, and said it did not conflict with non-motorized use of trails.

Don Fenwick, from the Yarker area, sat for six years on the management board for the Cataraqui Trail. The board has resisted ATV use of trails. Fenwick said, “4-wheelers should be allowed on certain portions of trails and on other portions they would be diverted to the roads. Trying to prohibit them entirely leads only to problems. But whatever we do here, we should remember that these rail corridors will never come again. If we don't take advantage of the K&P rail line, there will never be a corridor for a trail in Frontenac County”.

The public meeting in Sharbot Lake, and a meeting in Verona a couple of days earlier, which was not quite a love-in over motorized trails, were sponsored by the Trails Committee of Frontenac County Council. In addition to staff members and representatives from trails groups, the committee includes councilors from each of the four Frontenac townships.

Deputy Mayor Gary Smith is the trails rep. for Central Frontenac Township. He conducted the meeting in Sharbot Lake, and said there has been a varied response, ranging from the enthusiasm of the people at last week’s meeting, to people who “have told us point blank, 'not over my dead body; it's not going to happen'”.

The committee is charged with looking at a variety of issues, including the concerns of people whose properties abut the trail and who in some cases have built houses within metres of the old rail line. As well, portions of the trail between Tichborne and Sharbot Lake have been sold off, making it difficult to see how a continuous trail can be established from the borders of the City of Kingston to the Trans Canada trail that passes through Sharbot Lake on the east-west axis.

“The fallback for those sold-off lands, and it is not an ideal one, is the township roads,” said Smith.

“We need all the economic help we can get back here,” said Central Frontenac Councilor Bob Harvey, “and ATV tourism is a growing thing”.

The County trails committee will be preparing a draft master plan for trails to present to county council later this spring.

Deputy Mayor Jim Beam is the rep. for North Frontenac Township and Alan McPhail is the rep. for South Frontenac on the committee. 

“We woke up yesterday and there it was,” sobs a distraught resident who begs to remain anonymous, pointing to a giant pink and turquoise knitted cosy covering her picnic table.

“We’ve never had problems like this before. Sydenham has always felt like a nice, rural little place to live. That’s why we left Toronto: we’d begun to see signs of graffiti knitting creeping into the city: a pole warmer here, a newel post cosy there, but we hoped Frontenac County was far enough away…” Her voice trails off, as she gestures wordlessly to her husband’s garden tools. Sure enough, one of his shovels sports another cosy, this one apparently in Queen’s colours.

“The Township building department’s already asked if we had a permit,” adds her husband. He’s a man of few words, but it’s easy to tell he’s upset, particularly about the tassel.

Residents of neighbouring Harrowsmith have shown little sympathy. “We don’t have that sort of thing going on around here,” commented one, “We’re just not that kind of village.”

Phase 1 of the Frontenac K&P Trail – from Orser Road to Harrowsmith – will officially open with a relay of user groups on Friday, August 31.

The relay will begin at 10 a.m. at Orser Road, the K&P’s southern most point in Frontenac County. A horseback rider will carry a railway spike from Orser Road to Murton Road. From there, a cyclist will continue the relay to the Millhaven Creek Bridge where a runner will take over, carrying the spike to the junction of the Frontenac K&P and Cataraqui Trails.

If you wish to take part in this historic event, please arrive at the junction of the Frontenac K&P Trail and Road 38 at 10:30 a.m. and join our group of walkers in completing the last leg of the relay, carrying the railway spike from the trail junction to Road 38.

At approximately 11 a.m., during the ceremony following the relay, Janet Gutowski, Warden of the County of Frontenac, will announce the official opening of the trail. Local refreshments will be provided.

“We have talked about opening the K&P for a long time, so I am very excited to cut the ribbon on the 31st. The recent surfacing work has created a beautiful trail that will serve as a safe recreational space and long-term economic driver for the County of Frontenac. I hope to see lots of people at the opening – it’s not every day we get to be part of something that has a 140 year history,” says Janet Gutowski, Warden of the County of Frontenac.

The County of Frontenac’s development of the K&P Trail has been a five-year process that began with major land acquisitions in 2007. In 2009, a Trails Master Plan and Frontenac K&P Trail Implementation Plan were approved by County Council. Annually since 2009, Trail Network Development has been identified as a priority project through the County’s Integrated Community Sustainability Planning process. To this point, the development of the Frontenac K&P Trail has been made possible by provincial funding through the Investing in Ontario Program. Over the next few years, the county will continue to work towards opening the K&P to Sharbot Lake and developing other trails throughout the Frontenacs.