If 2018 Frontenac County budget were a head of hair, and county council a barber, no one would notice the haircut that was administered last week.

The draft budget set the requisition to the Frontenac Townships at $9.775 million and after a snip of $12,400 dollars the final budget trims that figure to $9.763 million.

Either way the number rounds off to $9.8 million. In percentage terms the requisition increase now sits at 4.4%, down from 4.5%.

Each of the four townships will combine their share of county costs with the amount that they are charged by the Ministry of Education. The County levy in 2017 was $9.35 million.

When they met last week, (November 5) some members of Council had greater ambitions for cuts, but only two cuts were made. The first was the elimination of a $6,000 commitment to an education bursary for foster kids to Family and Children’s Services of Frontenac Lennox and Addington (FACSFLA). The second was to curtail a planned parking lot restoration project at the county office/Fairmount Home by $20,000. Of that $20,000 in savings, only $6,400 came from Frontenac County ratepayers, the rest was to come from the City of Kingston.

The gallery at the meeting was crowded, and the observers were on hand for one reason, to see if the proposed $55,106 annual commitment to the University Hospital Foundation of Kingston would remain in the budget.

In a previous meeting, the proposed commitment, which is set to run for ten years, was supported by 6 of the 8 council members, but the Frontenac News took an editorial position opposing it, and North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins used social media to solidify opposition in North Frontenac.

When the matter was raised again at the meeting last week, council members who had expressed lukewarm support or did not speak at all the first time around came out strongly in favour. Councillor Nossal from Frontenac Islands said that for her constituents the hospitals are an essential service and a cause they support.

“This might seem like comparing apples and oranges,” she said, “but on Howe Island we get no benefit from the K&P Trail but our money went towards its construction. Now we are looking for the other townships to come through for the hospital foundation.”

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle and Central Frontenac Mayor Francis Smith both said they thought the commitment was important. Even South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal, who opposed the payment in the first instance, had a change of heart.

“I am not going to support the increase in this budget, let me make that clear,” he said, “but in canvassing my council last night and the community as well, not many people in South Frontenac seem to have a problem giving this money to the hospital foundation, so I will not vote against this item. We need to find savings elsewhere.”

With that, when Ron Higgins moved an amendment to cut the $55,064 from the budget, there was no one to second his motion.

After the hospital foundation supporters left, Ron Vandewal proposed the bursary cut, saying “is anyone here from Children’s Aid as he did so.”

Other cuts that Vandewal floated included trimming a $35,000 expenditure on Economic Development, which did not proceed anywhere.

Vandewal also want council to consider not following through with a 24 hour ambulance to Wolfe Island, which was a decision made two years ago but is still causing a budget increase in 2018 because it has been phased in.

Chief of Paramedic Services Paul Charbonneau was asked if an alternate service model, the use of an Emergency First Response vehicle, staffed by one paramedic, could provide the same level of service on Wolfe Islands a full 24 hour ambulance. Charbonneau said that with contemporary knowledge about emergency calls and medical technology, the First Response Vehicle could provide a high level of service even if it meant transport would have to wait until an ambulance arrived from Kingston via ferry.

Dennis Doyle argued that to shift away from the 24 hour ambulance just as it was about to come about would have negative impact on Wolfe Islanders.

“I am asking Council to provide this service to Wolfe Islanders,” he said. “It is important and if it is abandoned it will bring down property values and that won’t help anyone in Frontenac County.

That was the end of the debate.

The motion to approve the budget and prepare an enacting bylaw for approval on December 20 passed without further changes.

(Note – The final budget estimates for overall expenditures in 2018 are set at $41.3 million, which is unchanged from the draft version. The budget cuts approved last week fall within the rounding error)

Outdoor Furnace Issue
Neighbours Mary Royer and Jim Varrette made presentations about their neighbour’s outdoor furnace, which Royer says has caused her ongoing health and comfort problems with its smoke. She uses an inhaler and sometimes a mask, cannot open her windows, and has had her indoor smoke alert set off. Varrette, who lives on the other side of the furnace, although aware of the smoke, says he’s upwind of it much of the time. Royer asked why Council couldn’t enforce its recent bylaw which forbids operation of an outdoor furnace which interferes with ‘any reasonable enjoyment of the environment.’

Mayor Vandewal called on Councillor McDougall, who said that he had talked numerous times with the furnace owner, and felt the man had tried hard to minimize emissions: “The furnace is small, very efficient, and he uses wood that’s dry, well-seasoned,” said McDougall, recommending that Council continue to monitor and assess the situation. Considerable discussion followed.

Councillor Revill said they needed to set specific time limits on any expectation of improvement. Although all agreed that an objective assessment of the problem would need to be made, no one had a concrete suggestion of how to measure, on a 24-hour basis, the frequency and density of the emissions. It would also be necessary to be able to establish and then measure an unacceptable level of smoke.

CAO Orr added that as long as the furnace owner was making serious efforts to improve the situation, it would be legally difficult to shut the furnace down.

Council will seek further information and agreed to try to find a way to resolve the problem. Orr added that if something was deemed to be “a public nuisance,” there is a process to address it, but the process must be able to be seen as fair and transparent.

Budget Delegations
Although Council had invited public delegations to address issues related to the township’s 2018 budget planning, only one delegate appeared: Jeff Peters read a letter from the chair of the Inverary Lake association, asking Council to grant them $15,000 toward the cost of preparing a lake assessment study of Inverary Lake. In reply to the letter’s reference to the Sydenham Lake Association’s study completed this year, Councillor Schjerning said that there had been no cost to the Township: the study had been heavily funding through the Source Water Protection program, because the lake is a reservoir for the Sydenham water system.

CAO Orr confirmed that the Township has never given money to any of the local Lake Assessments. Mayor Vandewal added that the studies for Buck and 14 Island Lakes had cost $80.000 or more, and all the area lake studies done so far have shown a drop in phosphate levels. There was a brief informal exchange about the recent rise in algae growth in some area lakes.

McFadden Subdivision Draft Plan Changes
Planner Mills recommended two minor changes to a draft plan which has already been submitted to the County for approval. The subdivision proposal in question is located near Perth Road on McFadden Road, between Norway Road and the Cataraqui Trail. A recent letter from the CRCA has asked that no direct accesses be provided to the Trail, as there are already two access points reasonably nearby. (Councillor Sutherland said he felt this was an unfortunate request, for it meant residents would have to go by road to get on the trail.) However, a 1-foot reserve is to be placed along the rear portions of the two lots that abut the trail. Also, a provision for widening McFadden Road needs to be added, for the current roadway is only 9 metres wide at one point, instead of the required 20 metres.

Accessibility Presentation
Jannette Amini presented the annual Accessibility Advisory Committee report from the County. Among South Frontenac’s accomplishments, she noted the accessible features incorporated into the upgrade of facilities at the Point Park, the Sydenham boat launch ramp and planned for the new Perth Road Fire Hall. Councillor McDougall thanked Amini for keeping the Frontenacs informed of accessibility requirements and encouraging councils and businesses to continue making their facilities more accessible to all.

Cataraqui Trail Video
Council enjoyed a six-minute video produced by the CRCA about the Cat Trail from Sydenham to the Opinicon. It began with a great series of archival photos taken when the rail section near the Opinicon was first constructed, then moved into drone videos taken this September along the present-day trail.

No Council Meeting Next Week ..
but Saturday’s special budget meeting’s still on, beginning at 8 am!

Orr asked Council’s permission to cancel the November 21 Council meeting, because there is nothing on the agenda. Councillor Revill’s suggestion that they could “get together for tea and cookies” had no takers.

4% increase likely in Frontenac County budget – offset by 1% in growth

Frontenac County Council said yes to most of the requests for funding it received as part of its 2018 budget deliberations. Fortunately for Frontenac County ratepayers, a lot of the requests came from service areas that are shared with the City of Kingston. For example, the cost of a new 11pm -7am Personal Support Worker Shift at Fairmount Home, a 1.4 FSE (Full time staff equivalent) is $91,147 with benefits, but Frontenac County ratepayers will only pay $29,167 and City of Kingston ratepayers will cover the rest because of a cost sharing agreement for the home. Similarly, a Human Resources generalist position that is being created will cost $87,815 for salary and benefits, but only $27,339 is being charged to county residents. A $45,000 parking lot improvement project at the Fairmount Home/County office complex will similarly cost county ratepayers $14,400 with Kingston covering the rest.

The major exception, in terms of cost, is the proposal for a $35,000 levy contribution to the Economic Development Reserve Fund, and a commitment to increase that reserve by $35,000 each year for the next five years, in order to bring the department into a stronger long term position with an annual budget that is $170,000 higher than 2016 levels by 2023.

Although this proposal will lead to a greater increase in taxation than any of the other proposals in front of Council, it was well received and enthusiastically approved. Much of that enthusiasm can be attributed to the successful implementation of the new Frontenac brand and the brand ambassador program.
“I’ve been involved in municipal politics for 30 years and for the first time people are coming up to me at church and asking about how they can get involved in a Frontenac County program. They are now relating to the county as something that can do something for us,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith.
“I don’t think that my township is going to set up an economic development department on its own,” said Ron Vandewal of South Frontenac. “We rely on the county for this. Even if it costs us more in the future, it is still cheaper than doing it on our own.”
All told the projects listed above will increase the county levy by 0.91%.

External requests
Council also considered a number of external requests. The largest of these was a request from the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation for a $200,000 annual donation. Council opted instead for a $55,061 annual donation. Because the County has been making a donation of $54,000 each year for ten years, and even though the ten year commitment was over with, the expenditure is already included in the budget, so only the increase was included for the purpose of budget deliberations last week, even though all decisions will be subject to a further consideration of the entire budget on November 15.
Still, council members took divergent views towards the request.

John Inglis from North Frontenac said that he took the presentation by the hospital foundation, which took place in September, “at face value, and I support making a $200,000 donation.”
On the other side of the coin, South Frontenac Mayor (and current County Warden) Ron Vandewal said “I really struggle when you start spending money outside of your mandate”.
North Frontenac Mayor (and current Deputy Warden) Ron Higgins said “This is basically a donation. Is it in our job to do donations? I can’t justify it.”
Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith took the middle ground.

“I do believe we have to give them something,” she said, “but we struggle to pay our own staff. I can’t see a jump like they are looking for.”
Gradually the status quo expenditure of $55,061 seemed to gain favour.
“I’ve got no problem doing what we are already doing, because it is in our budget,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle.
By a show of hands $55,061 donation was remained in the budget (see editorial)

A smaller donation, $6,000 towards a scholarship program for children in foster care, was also approved, but a $10,000 request for an incentive program for recording artists was referred to the Community Development Advisory Committee.
The final discussion centered around a set of requests from Frontenac Transportation Services (FTS) for an increase to the $96,000 that the county already contributes. The not for profit service is led by Rural Frontenac Community Services, in partnership with Southern Frontenac Community Services.
Because of change in ridership over the last 18 months or so, a decrease in third party funded rides by agencies such as Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Supports Program, and an increase in rides for seniors, FTS has moved from a modest surplus standing, to a deficit. To deal with their financial issues, they asked the county for a $20,000 increase in the annual support payment, a $10,000 one time payment to cover the 2017 deficit, $5,000 for a fund to subsidise rides for low income seniors, and $10,000 to undertake a pilot project to develop an accessible service in response to a request from the Frontenac County Accessiblity Committee.

Dennis Doyle was un-moved by the requests.

“I think we give them enough already,” he said, but his view did not prevail.
“I can’t see putting another $20,000 on the levy without seeing a business case from them that tells us how they are going to deal with the reality they are facing on the ground,” said Ron Vandewal.
In the end Vandewal’s position held sway. Council agreed to provide an extra $20,000 in 2018 as a one time payment, taken from a $100,000 senior’s transportation reserve fund, and to fund the $10,000 pilot from the same fund, which will be cut to $70,000 by the end of the year.
“They can come to Council next year with a business plan and the new council can decide if they want to do a permanent increase in funding,” said Vandewal.
Because reserve funds were used, the FTS increase will not impact the levy, and the impact from all the requests from outside sources was only $7,061, the net impact of all the project proposals debated by the Committee of the Whole on Wednesday and Thursday of last week is an increase of a shade under 1% on the overall levy.

County Treasurer Susan Brant told the news last week that the operating budget she has prepared will include an increase inline with the annualised Consumer Price Index for August (1.5%) and a commitment to a 0.65% increase for an infrastructure reserve, which are both mandated by Council.
With the increases from last week, that 3.15% budget increase is likely. Brant also indicated that, as was done last year, another increase of up to 1% will likely be included in the budget. This will be offset by property assessment growth in the county that will be identified by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation when they deliver their annual assessment report for Frontenac County.

In all, the budget that Council will see on November 20 will include an increase in the range of 4% in the overall levy to county ratepayers.

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Before members of Frontenac County Council see a complete budget document, they are meeting this week to consider requests for new spending. Some of these requests are coming from internal sources, such as the county run Fairmount Home, Frontenac Paramedic Services, and the Human Resources and Economic Development departments.

Among the list of requests is a new 7 day a week overnight Personal Support Worker (PSW) shift at Fairmount Home, and a new Human Resources position. The salaries for these jobs would be funded mostly by the City of Kingston, but county ratepayers would be on tap for $29,167 for the PSW shift, and $27,339 for the Human Resources position.

Among the other project proposals that would impact taxation is $14,400 for the county share of the costs of improvements to the parking lot at the Fairmount Home/County office complex, and a $35,000 in 2017 to boost the budget for the Economic Development Department in order to keep it at its current capacity when a three year provincial grant runs out.

County ratepayers would only be saddled with $111,000, a 1/2% increase, if all the internally driven project are approved.

That is only one part of the tax picture, however. This week council will also consider requests from external groups. Among these is a request from the University Hospital Foundations of Kingston for $200,000 toward ongoing improvements at three Kingston hospitals. This would be an increase of $146,000 over the contribution made by the county in 2017, which was the tenth and final year in a $54,000 annual contribution to a previous fund raising drive. The other large ticket item is a basket of requests from Frontenac Transportation Services for a total increase of $44,000 to their annual grant of $96,000.
All told the external requests come to over $205,000 and if granted would increase taxation by a further 2.2%.

Once the project proposals are dealt with, council will consider the budget as a whole. Based on a motion passed in September, that budget will include an increase of 1.5% for inflation, based on the Stats Canada Consumer Price Index for the year ending August 31st. Council has also agreed to 0.65% increase each year to go towards long term infrastructure replacement costs. In 2017, another 1% spending increase was covered by an increase in property assessment from new construction, and although the property assessment data is not in yet, a similar increase will be in the budget that council will be in front of council next month.

Essentially Council is looking at 3% increase before looking at any new projects, and about a 6.4% increase if they decide to say yes to all of the proposals that will be before them this week.
The likelihood is that at least some of the requests will be pegged back or eliminated, as council struggles to bring in their final budget before municipal elections in the fall of 2018.

Council meets this week to debate the project proposals, on the expectation that they will consider the budget as a whole on November 15 with a view towards adopting it in December.

“Just don’t tell me that our needs are greater than our resources,” said Mayor Vandewal, “we all understand that, and hear it every budget session!” With this, Council launched into a discussion of Public Works Manager Segsworth’s presentation of the Transportation, Solid Waste, Water and Facilities draft capital budget details.The final total came to $7,286,000, of which $5,775,000 was for roads, euphemistically called ‘linear assets’. Vandewal questioned the $175,000 purchase of a fully-equipped mechanic’s truck to replace the present one, a 1994 hand-me-down from the fire department.

Councillors listed several missing items: a Harrowsmith ‘parkette’ beside the trail, more staff parking near the Township hall, plans for the use of the former Township garage property on Stagecoach Road, plans for the Petworth mill. Treasurer Fragnito said the latter item would be in the operating budget.

This information will all become part of the 2018 budget deliberations.

Tax Relief Applications

The township has the option to cancel, reduce or refund property taxes due to sickness or extreme poverty. This has to be applied for a an annual basis. Although South Frontenac does not have any pending applications, there have been enquiries. Because of the sensitive nature of such applications, Treasurer Louise Fragnito brought a recommendation that council bring forward a by-law to authorize the Assessment Review Board (ARB) of Ontario to process applications on behalf of the Township. The ARB is trained to hear these appeals, and would conduct their hearing locally. Council agreed.

Revision of Procedural Bylaw

Council discussed a proposal to streamline their meeting schedule by deleting one COW meeting a month. There was general agreement to try holding Council meetings (where by-laws are voted upon) on the first and third Tuesday of each month and one Committee of the Whole (for discussion of proposals and issues) on the third Tuesday. Delegations would be scheduled across all three meetings as necessary. this will mean devolving more preliminary discussion to the four standing Committees (Public Services, Corporate Services, Development Services and S. Frontenac Recreation.) Council seemed in agreement that this revised schedule should be tried, to begin in January. They were less interested in the accompanying proposal, that would permit ‘electronic participation’ in meetings.

Seniors Housing: Next Steps

Currently, Southern Frontenac Community Services has withdrawn any interest in participating in constructing Seniors housing on their property, and the City of Kingston is indicating they might be able to provide funding grants. CAO Orr said he needed direct from Council: does the Township wish to be involved in the provision of affordable seniors housing?

After a lengthy discussion, Council decided they were interested, but needed more information. Orr agreed to talk to a consultant, get some additional written information, and set up a time as soon as possible for a special meeting to further discuss the question.

Arena Floor

Council will earmark $590,000 of their reserves (South Frontenac pays 59% of arena costs) for eventual replacement of the arena floor which is 41 years old and still good, but nearing the probable end of its use.

Dog Parks

Rather than budget for temporary fencing, Council recommended building one permanently fenced dog park in Centennial Park. Rules and regulations based on those in other municipalities’ off-leash areas will need to be drawn up. Councillor Sutherland said the people who had petitioned for the park had offered to fund raise, so they should be contacted. Someone asked if barking was likely to become a problem for nearby residents. Councillor Roberts said that if they were considering requiring pit bulls to be muzzled, should all dogs then be muzzled? The meeting had already run late, and nobody bit on this.

Frontenac County asked community groups and individuals to come forward with funding requests in advance of the adoption of the 2018 budget in December. Four groups took up the offer and made presentations to a meeting of Frontenac County Council last Wednesday (September 21)
They were Frontenac Transportation Services (FTS), The Kingston University Hospitals Foundation, Frontenac Addington Children’s and Family Services (FACSLA), and Jonas Bonnetta.

In each case, the requests were for new or increased funding, and the amounts requested varied from a high of $200,000 per year for 10 years from the hospital foundation to a $6,000 annual investment over 4 years to create a bursary for children in foster care from FACSLFA.
The County is already committed to providing $96,000 each year to Frontenac Transportation Services to support administration costs and subsidies for seniors who use the service. Last week, program Manager Gail Young made requests for several extra pots of funding, including an annual increase of $20,000 to help cover increased costs that come from changes in the mix of riders in recent years. She said there has been an increase in the number of rides for seniors and a decrease in the number of rides paid for by third parties such as Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. Seniors rides pay the agency less than the third party rides.

Young also asked for a one time payment of $10,000 to replenish the FTS reserve fund, which has been depleted due to an operating loss in 2016/17. As well, FTS is asking for $5,000 annually to subsidise seniors rides, and $10,000 for a one year pilot project to enhance accessibility for people with mobility deficits. The last request was in response to an initiative sponsored by the Frontenac County accessibility committee.
The total request from FTS is for a $45,000 increase in 2017, but of that $20,000 would be one time funding. The agency would like to see its annual funding rise to $121,000.
Jonas Bonnetta is a musician, music producer and music studio owner who lives and runs a music production studio near Mountain Grove. His proposal is for the county to establish a $10,000 arts fund to help local and visiting musicians to make use of studio space in Frontenac County. This is one of a number of measures to augment the arts he would like to see. His funding proposal is tied in with the idea of establishing a broad based Arts Council in Frontenac County.
“I really believe that by making strategic investments in the local creative sector, and seeking matching funds from senior governments and the private sector, the County of Frontenac could become known as a destination for the arts,” he said.

Budget pressures

The hopeful presenters had all left the building by the time Frontenac County CAO Kelly Pender made a presentation entitled “budget policy review”.
The review outlined how, under Council’s direction, staff will again present a budget this year with an increase pegged to the consumer price index (1.2% if the current numbers hold) in addition to a 0.65% increase to be devoted to long term infrastructure replacement. Pender did not include assessment increases due to growth in his presentation but if past years are any indication another 1% increase in taxation will be folded into the budget.

Pender then pointed to a series of fixed costs that will weigh on council this year. 48.8% of the the tax money raised from ratepayers goes to outside agencies, and cost increases for those agencies are outside of county control. These include payments to: the Public Library, the Public Health Unit, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, social housing and social services. A further 31% of that money goes to Frontenac Paramedic Services and the Fairmount Home long term care facility, operations managed by Frontenac County with funding from ratepayers in Frontenac, the City of Kingston and the Province.
As Pender pointed out, there are significant pressures on each of these budgets, and the even with efforts to make the operations more efficient, labour costs and ever increasing regulations and guidelines will make it very difficult to keep from increasing taxes above the targeted threshold this year.
He pointed out that the needs of patients in Fairmount and provincial regulations as well as the expectations of family members make it very difficult to keep the Fairmount Home budget in check, and increasing calls for service and the expectation to meet response time targets are stresses on the Frontenac Paremadic Services budget.

Staff intend to present council with a base budget, within the target range, and optional enhancements, which council can choose to implement or reject. This is how the budget was presented last year.
Warden Ron Vandewal spoke up at this point.

“It is almost impossible to reduce service levels, I am aware of that, but I would rather staff tell me what we can do within a 2% increase, and if staff think something is important enough to do they will fit it in that target. Instead what happens is we get a budget and then a list of additions and every one of them puts the budget over the target. It takes an enormous amount of courage to say no in those cases, that’s what other councillors told me last year.”

“My eyes go to the service level reductions. We tried that in a previous council and looking at it in hindsight it was a mistake,” said Councillor John McDougall.

“It is indeed hard for an individual councillor to object to an individual project, I take Ron’s point, but still I appreciate the transparency of the current process,” said Councillor John Inglis.

“I understand what Ron is saying,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith. “I’m not sure we can simply say 2% is all we can do. I think we need to be open minded to do the best job we can. We need to give thought and consideration to all the projects that come before us.”

Central Frontenac Council approved work on the Elm Tree Bridge as part of its 2017 budget at its regular meeting Tuesday night in Sharbot Lake.

Outgoing (interim) Public Works Manager Mike Richardson made the recommendation to Council, saying that “the Elm Tree Bridge replacement is recommended in the OSIM’s (Ontario Structure Inspection Manual) report for replacement by 2018.

“By completing this project, the municipality will be on track to being up to date with our OSIM report recommendations.”

The engineer’s estimated cost for the project is about $472,000.

Treasurer Mike McGovern told Council that given the $414,000 budget deficit oversight and the $62,000 OCIF grant municipal contribution, the project would have “no impact” on the municipal levy for 2017.

However, using that “found money” for the bridge didn’t sit well with every councillor.

“It bugs me that we’re going to spend all of it and not use it to reduce the levy,” said Coun. Phillip Smith.

“I’d like to see the money put in reserves and applied to reducing the levy,” said Coun. Tom Dewey.

“We’ve got a lot of hard-top roads that need attention like Crow Lake and Arden Road,” said Mayor Frances Smith.

However, Richardson and McGovern both argued that getting this particular bridge off the to-do list would produce long-term benefits for the Township.

“We have 34 bridges and over the past six years, public works has concentrated on bringing the municipality up to where it should be with respect to bridge maintenance and replacement, equipment replacement and maintenance,” Richardson said. “Once this bridge is completed, the municipality can concentrate on road improvements, like Fifth Lake Road.

“Roads that are commuter roads, and connecting link roads that transport commerce from one community to another should be looked upon more favourably for grant eligibility.”

Another reason to do the bridge now, Richardson said is that because the bridge was cited in the OSIM report, if something were to happen on it, the municipality could be held liable for any damages incurred.

In order to accommodate the project, the Armstrong-Cross Road intersection project will be put on hold.

Road work
But it’s not as if none of the  roads are going to get attention this year. Richardson said another 1.4 kilometres of Arden Road will get resurfacing and “Bell Line has a need for extra attention. We’ve lived with it for a number of years now.
“We’ll go round and round fixing potholes until it gets dry and people start complaining about dust.”

Richardson also reported that the Township needed an additional $50,000 worth of sand to get through this winter.

Waste Disposal bylaw
Council passed revisions to its Waste Disposal Bylaw which reflect changes to the wording updating the Township’s Certificate of Approval to Environmental Compliance Approval, as well as changes to hours of operation, fees, garbage bag requirements and recycling policy that have been made in the past five years.

Mandatory Septic Reinspection revisited?
Coun. Jamie Riddell served notice of motion to reopen discussion on septic tank inspections. The motion carried.

North Frontenac Council passed its 2017 budget at its regular meeting last week in Plevna.

Residents will see a $23.91 increase on every $100,000 of their property’s assessment or 2.89 per cent.

The Township portion increased by 2.39 per cent but the bottom line also includes Frontenac County’s increase of 5.01 per cent.

Treasurer Kelly Watkins began her public presentation with noting that Ward 1 contains 46.17 per cent of the Township’s taxable assessment, followed by Ward 2 at 35.11 per cent and Ward 3 at 18.72 per cent.

She said that the Township needs to raise $5,765,957 by taxation and their portion of the County levy amounts to $1,496,828. The education portion of the levy is due to municipalities by March 31.

While there was an increase in revenue from the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund of $175,100, $20,000 in insurance savings from a new provider and $8,000 from waste user fees Watkins said there were several key items that led to the levy increase including an increase in OPP billing of $175,225, $50,000 for a new winter maintenance reserve fund, $10,000 for road side maintenance under the Weed Act, a 3.73 per cent increase in wages and benefits for $88,000, an $11,900 increase in contributions to Tangible Capital Assets for recreation (to help fund tractor and truck for this department) and $14,000 from re-use exchange facility.

Grants received included an Ontario Community Infrastructure grant for gravel of $142,725 and a 90 per cent OCIF grant for the Head Road Bridge ($301,500 on a $335,000 project) and a Canada 150 Infrastructure grant for 1/3 of the

Clar-Mill Hall new entrance ($10,000 of a $30,000 project).

Capital asset replacements include a minimum of two computers, bunker gear, miscellaneous fire equipment including upgraded breathing apparatus, a 2008 Ford F550, 2005 Sterling Tandem, 1999 service vehicle, 1999 steam jenny, Garage 1 roof replacement, replacement of caron wheels for compactor and 25 HP motor (MNR Parks).

Other projects include Road 506 resurfacing, addition/renovation/retrofit of the Municipal Building, website upgrades, new telephone system for the Municipal Building, Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw Review, building condition assessment, road condition re-evaluation, inspections for Folger and Buckshot Creek bridges, Canada 150 celebrations and additional speed limit signs in hamlets.

Reserve funds projected year-end balances per budget include $1,142,570.72 in obligatory reserve funds, $1,357,299.95 in discretionary reserve funds, $4,437,187.97 in tangible capital asset reserve funds and $171,789.49 in reserves for a total of $7,108,848.

(Subsequent to the posting of the article beneath, Central Frontenac Council cut another $80,000 from the budget. The final budget levy to ratepayers is $7.45 million, an increase of 4.1% over 2016. Because total property assessment in the the township dropped by 0.8% last year, the tax rate itself is up by 4.3%. During their deliberations, Central Frontenac Council cut a total of $311,000 from the levy tahta was initalliy proposed to them by staff, through cost cutting and dipping into reserve funds)

Members of Central Frontenac Council huddled with Treasurer Michael McGovern after their regular council meeting late on Tuesday afternoon to go over the last few departmental budgets in search of some savings.

Before they started, McGovern presented them with an amended budget that included enough cuts to bring the total tax rate increase down from 6.2%, which is where it was a week ago, to 5.1%. The tax rate for township purposes, had dropped from an increase of 7.9% to 6.3%. (see note below)

In order to bring the rate down, McGovern was recommending cuts of $56,000 from budget lines in the  waste disposal budget, $15,000 from spending on the asset management program, $14,000 from grants for recreation, $25,000 from salaries, $10,000 from the culvert replacement program, and a number of smaller cuts. In total, the budget Council was looking at this week was over $230,000 lower than the one they were working from a week ago.

Mayor Frances Smith had set the target of a 4% increase after the previous meeting, a tall order considering all of the major departmental budgets have already been combed through, leaving only development services, cemeteries and the swim program for Council to go through this week.

Updated budget numbers as the result of Tuesday evening’s deliberation can be found at Frontenacnews.ca

(budget note – Central Frontenac collects taxes for their own spending and transfer obligations, but also collects money that goes to Frontenac County and the Ministry of Education. The township amount is the largest (70.5%) compared to Frontenac County (14.2%) and The Ministry of Education (15.3%)

This year, the amount being charged by Frontenac County to Central Frontenac is up by 5%, while the Ministry of Education rate remains as it was last year, a 0% increase. Because all these numbers are combined, the local increase of 6.3% results in an increase in the total tax collected of 5.1%)

Other items from Central Frontenac Council

New MVCA regulations to have little impact, planner says
Planner Reid Shepherd presented a report to Council on the implications of a proposal by the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) to begin regulating development near all designated wetlands in the Mississippi River watershed. The MVCA is one of three conservation authorities that have responsibility for parts of Central Frontenac. The other two, Quinte and Rideau Valley, already regulate wetlands. As well, as Shepherd pointed out, Central Frontenac already has its rules in its own official plan about setbacks from designated wetlands, so the impact of a new role for the MVCA “will likely be small” he said.

Shepherd added that development pressures on wetlands in the township are minimal.

“Most of the development in Central Frontenac is on the shores of lakes,” he said, pointing out that “for the six years encompassing 2011–2016, only 10 applications were submitted for development within 30 metres of wetlands throughout Central Frontenac, and only 2 applications were filed within the boundaries of the MVCA.”

A map that was included in Shepherd’s presentation, showed a large number of green shaded areas that could be included under new regulation, but he said more study on the ground will be needed to determine where wetlands are actually located.

For planning purposes, wetlands must be over 1 hectare in size and must be fed by and drain into another water body.
Councillor Bill Macdonald, who is the Central Frontenac representative on the MVCA Board, said that “other townships, including our neighbours in Tay Valley and North Frontenac, have passed resolutions opposing this, but really the MVCA is just doing what every other Conservation Authority already does, and the implications for Central Frontenac are very minimal if there are any at all.”

In the end the township received Shepherd’s report for information. No resolution opposing the change was passed, or even contemplated.

(Note – Mayor Frances Smith informed Council that Reid Shepherd will be leaving Frontenac County to take a job in Ottawa for a consulting firm. Shepherd has been working as community planner for Frontenac County and has been doing much of the work in Central Frontenac as part of a contract the township has with Frontenac County for planning services.)

Culvert replacement and sand stockpiles under pressure
Interim Public Works Manager Mike Richardson reported that the work on replacing a culvert on 4th Lake Road has been hampered by the weather and other complications. He is hopeful the plan for replacement will not need to be changed or that any delays will occur, and said he would know more by the end of the week.

The sand stockpiles have been depleted due to the amount of freezing of rain that has occurred, culminating in a large freezing rain event on February 7 and 8. Richardson said the next three weeks will tell if more sand needs to be sourced.
Waste amnesty dates approved

Richardson recommended and council approved that the waste amnesty (1 trailer load per household per year) should take place within the regular waste hours throughout the summer, rather than during a small waste amnesty window. The waste amnesty program this year will extend from May 13 to September 10.

Strategic plan
After an eight month process, Council approved the first Strategic Plan for Central Frontenac. The plan includes 6 focus areas: asset management; environmental services; good governance & effective administration; health, recreation, culture & lifestyle; infrastructure; and the protection and health of the natural environment. 

Cemetery benches in Mountain Grove
John Purdon, appearing on behalf of Judy Gray, asked for township to approve spending of up to $9,000 for 3 granite benches, one for each of the cemeteries in Mountain Grove. The money for the benches has been raised in Mountain Grove during annual cemetery services in the summer.

As Purdon pointed out, “this is a budget matter but it does not involve tax dollars as we have raised all the money, and we have almost $10,000 put aside.”

Council approved the plan as presented.

After the first round of budget deliberations for Central Frontenac Council, the magic number is sitting at a 6.2 per cent increase.

If the budget were to be finalised tomorrow, that would mean an additional $64 per $100,000 of assessed value to ratepayers.

“(But) we’re not done yet,” said Mayor Frances Smith. “If we can get it down to 4 per cent, that would be good.”

When Council began the all-day meeting on Monday (February 6), they were initially faced with an intractable fact; so-called negative growth. The total assessed value of all the properties in Central Frontenac for the purposes of the current tax year is $886,543,881, quite a chunk of change. But it is down from the total assessed value from a year earlier, by $7.5 million, or 0.8%. That means if the same tax rate that was used in 2016 were applied, tax revenue would be down by $62,000.

This issue is compounded by increases coming from the Frontenac County budget. The County increased its levy to the townships by about 4.2% this year. The impact of that increase over the entire county is buffered by assessment growth of 1%. However, here again since Central Frontenac saw negative growth of 0.8%, the impact of the county budget in Central Frontenac is a 5% increase.

When increased policing, hydro and staffing costs, in particular the move to a full time fire chief, members of Central Frontenac Council were looking at a 9% increase in the amount needed for their own purposes, and a total increase of just under 8% when the a 0% increase in the education rate and a 5% increase in the county rate is factored in.

After a day of work, Council cut $180,000 in spending from the budget, lowering the increase for local use to 7.8% and the overall increase to 6.2%.

Council isn’t done yet having scheduled another budget meeting to follow the Feb. 14 regular meeting, but two of the largest budgets — public works and fire — along with corporate services have already been dealt with. That leaves the planning, building and capital budgets still to be scrutinised.

(Editors note - Budgeting in Central Frontenac has been difficult over the years. When Central Frontenac is compared to that of its neighbours to the south and north, the reasons become clear. South Frontenac, with 4 times the population and healthy growth, benefits from a better economy of scale. North Frontenac, with an almost identical amount of property assessment as Central Frontenac, has a much higher proportion of seasonal residents than does Central Frontenac, a 4-1 ratio as compared to 1-1 ratio. Seasonal residents require service for 2-4 months a year instead of 12 months per year and are therefore cheaper to serve, and they tend to pay a lot of tax because many of them own waterfront properties.)