Back in April, staff from the City of Kingston oversaw two distinct processes which were designed to provide a snap shot of the scope of the homelessness reality in the City of Kingston and in Frontenac County. In Kingston, City staff worked with the United Way, who oversaw a one-night Point in Time (PiC) of homeless Kingstonians. They counted people in shelters and in locations where homeless people tend to sleep, using all the skills of the social service workers and others who work in the field, to come up with as much information about numbers of people and other details. “Obviously,” said Ruth Noordegraaf, Manager-Housing and Childcare “you can’t go around Frontenac County in one night looking for homeless people, so we used a…

Three of the four Frontenac County Mayors were acclaimed back into office for a new term (Dennis Doyle – Frontenac Islands – 3rd term, Frances Smith, Central Frontenac – 2nd term, and Ron Higgins – North Frontenac – 2nd term) and the fourth, South Frontenac’s Ron Vandewal won re-election for a second term. They will form the bedrock of the council, but in all likelihood they will be joined by four new members. Natalie Nossal, the 2nd Frontenac Islands rep on the council, did not seek re-election. She will most likely be replaced on county council by Bruce Higgs. Higgs received the most votes in ward 1 (Howe Island) this time around. In Frontenac Islands, the top vote getting councillor from the ward where the…

We know you’re probably all wondering just how many eligible voters there are in Frontenac County municipal elections this year. One quirk of living in cottage country is that often there are a lot more eligible voters than there are permanent residents and Frontenac County is no exception to this rule. For example, in North Frontenac Township, the population according to the 2016 census is 1,898. However, because there are an awful lot of seasonal residents, there are actually 5,984 eligible voters. This twist here is that all of the Council positions and all but one school board position were filled by acclamation. So, no matter how many eligible voters there are, unless you’re an Algonquin & Lakeshore Catholic District School Board or a French…

Rejecting a consultants report which called for their wages to more than double in order to keep up wiht wages in other Counties, Frontenac County Council raised the pay for members of Council from $9,400 to $11,900 for the new council, which takes office on December 1st. The wage for the County warden, which is currently $22,900, will go to $28,900, also a 26% increase. The Deputy Warden will receive $14,280. These increases will be topped up by cost of living (COLA) increases based on the consumer price index. The consultant  report called for a 4-year phased in increase in compensation for members of the council.It recommended that the  salary for a member of council  jump from the current $9,400 to $19,400 by 2022, the…

Landlords in Frontenac County are encouraged to register to attend one of five rural landlord information sessions during the week of September 17-21. The purpose of the sessions is two-fold: One goal is to bring attention to the services provided by the Housing and Homelessness Collaborative that supports vulnerable families in Frontenac County stay sustainably housed. Workers based in Frontenac County will work with landlords and tenants with limited funding, referrals to other community services, and more. A second purpose is to hear from landlords in Frontenac County. As the program coordinator, Amanda Pantrey puts is, “There may be innovative ideas that landlords want to see. We will have municipal staff on hand for most of the sessions and together we can brainstorm ideas together…