Deputy Mayor Fred Perry made a suggestion at last month's special budget meeting regarding borrowing money from the Federal Gas Tax Reserve to help pay for the new municipal complex as opposed to taking out a loan on the full amount. This idea could save the Municipality over $100,000 over the course of the loan but would deplete the Townships reserve funds.

“I don't, personally, want to be depleting our reserves,” Councillor Wayne Good said. “If we start doing that here on this we'll have to start playing catch up.”

“As the Federal Gas Tax Reserve builds up at $186,000 a year is the plan to use that if there is a bridge failure?” Councillor John Inglis asked.

CAO Cheryl Robson explained that it could be used for bridges, road repairs, or other unforeseen expenses related to that infrastructure.

“It was an excellent suggestion by the Deputy Mayor,” Mayor Higgins said.

Council voted to transfer $250,000 from the Federal Gas Tax Reserve which lowers the total amount of the loan application to $704,244. They also opted for the 25-year serialized loan at 3.5% interest.

The construction on the complex is set to begin in April.

Council Composition Changes
Council voted to hold a public meeting regarding changing the composition of the council to reflect the population disparity between the current wards.

Currently, the Mayor is elected at large and 6 councillors are elected, 2 from each ward. The Deputy Mayor is then appointed by Council.

The proposal includes keeping Ward 1 as it is but combining Ward 2 and Ward 3 and having two Councillors represent that new amalgamated Ward. The Deputy Mayor would then be chosen by popular vote.

This proposal came out of a conversation started back in November of 2016 when Council was discussing how Wards 2 and 3 have almost the same amount of people as Ward 1.

If, following the public meeting, Council decided to move forward with the ward amalgamation then it would be effective for the 2018 election.

Insurance Coverage
Debra Murphy, a representative from the Frank Cowan Insurance Company, made a brief presentation to Council on Friday to explain some of the important parts of North Frontenac's insurance policy.

The Frank Cowan Insurance Company, a small, specialized firm, has a team that works only in municipal insurance.

“We are all about managing risks and keeping your claims under control,” Murphy said. “We are very well-versed in what's important in municipalities.”

The total limit of liability for the policy is set at $50,000,000 and the total annual premium is $72,633.

Mayor Ron Higgins asked whether Frank Cowan does risk management seminars for social media citing Donald Trump's tweets as an example.

“The more this (social media) gets used by municipalities the more risk there is,” Higgins said.

Murphy was unsure but was going to look into it.

Salvation Army Disaster Services
Mark Evans, a representative from the Salvation Army (SA), made a presentation to Council regarding their Emergency Disaster Services (EDS) and the 4 core functions the SA can provide in an emergency situation.

The EDS program is a modified version of what the SA does day to day but in an emergency context.

The program, funded primarily through unspecified general donations to the SA offers clothing and furniture vouchers at their stores, emotional and spiritual care, donation management, and a mass food service via their fleet of custom canteen vehicles when needed in an emergency situation. These services, excluding the canteen trucks, are free of charge to municipalities.

“We do endeavour to keep costs at a minimum when we're dealing with municipalities,” Evans said.

Evans would work with the Fire Chief to create a memorandum of understanding between the Salvation Army and the Municipality so costs of using the food truck would be known in advance.

The canteen truck, which has a kitchen and washroom on-board, can be used to keep emergency workers fed during an emergency response. Approximately 500 burgers were cooked up for emergency workers during the Parliament Hill shooting in 2014.

Council worked through their 2017 budget on Thursday last week and ended up with a 2.39% increase in dollars to be raised through taxation, or $134,331.

Major increases were seen in the creation of a winter road maintenance reserve fund for $50,000, the rising OPP policing costs at $175,225, and an increase in fire costs at $49,608.

The fire budget saw increases in consulting and training fees as well as a $15,350 increase in the dry hydrant program and a $6,800 increase in building maintenance for the Kaladar-Barrie Fire Hall.

This increase led Council into a discussion on the efficiency of the Kaladar-Barrie Fire Hall and a frustrated Mayor Ron Higgins requesting a review of the joint Kaladar-Barrie Fire Hall agreement.

“I'd like to review the agreement plus other options,” Mayor Higgins said. “I'm getting tired of this agreement.”

“The other option would be to consider separating and doing away with the agreement,” Councillor Dennis Bedard said.

There was an increase in the waste management budget at $13,448, which included increases in casual labour as well as $14,000 for the creation of a re-use centre, built out of two shipping containers, at the 506 waste site. These waste budget increases were partially offset by an increase in user fees and a decrease in consulting and maintenance fees for 2017.

Changes to the road budget ($110,423) came in increases to gravel roads, rising fuel costs, and the $50,000 being set aside for a winter maintenance reserve fund.

The decision to install an accessible playground to replace the old one at the Cloyne ball diamond was delayed with plans to be re-evaluated later in the year. This playground was estimated at $65,500.

The Municipality has a 20% decrease in their 2017 insurance costs thanks to a joint RFP they did in 2016 with Central Frontenac and their payroll is up 3.73%.

Potential Changes to Tipping Fees
Council have given authorization to Jim Phillips, the Public Works Manager, to draft a new waste disposal by-law and present the changes in a public meeting for feedback.

Phillips initial proposal includes increases in tipping fees for fridges, freezers, mattresses, sofas, and other household items as well as changes to how the bag tag incentive works.

Currently, North Frontenac residents receive free bag tags for bringing in more recycling than garbage bags and they're using them to pay for other items like bulky waste and construction garbage.

Phillips estimates the Township pays between $10,000 and $12,000 to Kimco, a waste removal company, to haul away waste that is covered by these free bag tags.

The proposal Phillips is making would prevent residents from being able to pay for bulky items or construction garbage with the free bag tags.

Canonto Lake Denied Dock Funding
The Canonto Lake Property Owners Association made a request to Council for $2500 to cover expenses related to constructing a floating dock on the lake.

Council denied the funding proposal reasoning that the dock would only be reachable by boat and therefore not accessible by constituents.

“When we spend public tax dollars it needs to be accessible by the general public,” Mayor Ron Higgins said.

Council to consider funding renovation of township office through reserves, 25 year loan
The good news is that the renovation project to bring the township office in line with health and safety standards and improve its functionality will cost just a hair over a million dollars. That is less than anticipated. The bad news is that the township needs to raise a million dollars to complete the project and only has about $50,000 set aside. The township did not receive any grant support from the project, applications to the Trillium Foundation and the Canada 150 infrastructure fund were both unsuccessful. At their regular meeting on Friday council will consider a staff recommendation to allocate $250,000 from an annual provincial grant, the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, to the project instead of spending that money on Road 506. Road 506 improvements will go ahead, however, funded by draining some federal gas tax rebate money. This will leave the township with $700,000 to raise through a loan, and staff are recommending a 25 year diminishing payment loan from Infrastructure Ontario. This will cost over $50,000 in the first year and a little less every year until the final payment of $28,000 in 2042.

At that same meeting council will be considering a recommendation by the Mayor to combine wards 2 and 3 (Palmerston Canonto and Clarendon and Miller) for the next election, thus cutting council from 7 to 5 members.

South Frontenac and Frontenac County have both completed their budgets for 2017.  While it may not have been a picnic for either of them, they were both at a significant advantage when compared to what politicians in smaller, more remote townships will be facing over the next few weeks. Take the example of North Frontenac, which will certainly be hit with a monumental budget squeeze when they meet later this week to consider their 2017 budget.

One of the factors at play is assessment. Any growth in North Frontenac due to new construction last year was offset by a drop in value for existing properties. In the most recent assessment cycle that was completed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation last year, property values in the township were flat. The total value of properties in North Frontenac this year is up by 0.06% over last year, almost nothing. This means that all increases in required payments to outside bodies will lead to increases in local taxation. North Frontenac is facing a big increase in policing costs, and the impact of the Frontenac County budget on North Frontenac Township will also be severe.

When Frontenac County approved their budget in December, they announced an increase of 3.15%. But that number was based in part on a 1% increase in assessment in the county as a whole due to growth. Since North Frontenac did not share in that growth, the net impact of the county levy to North Frontenac is actually a 5% increase.

On top of all that North Frontenac is committed to a building project at the township office that will cost between $1.5 and $2 million. It will be financed over several years, but some money has to be put aside to cover annual loan payments in this budget.

The upshot is that Council may indeed be looking at a significant increase this year, and tax rates in smaller townships such as North and Central Frontenac and Addington Highlands are already substantially higher than those in urban centres and larger rural municipalities like South Frontenac.

North Frontenac share services where possible with Central Frontenac and Addington Highlands, and have offloaded some costs over the years for planning and IT services by contracting out to Frontenac County, but the tax burden for ratepayers goes up and up.

Combined with increases in transportation and hydro costs, it is becoming more and more expensive to live in small, rural townships. And since employment is hard to come by as well, it might well be the case in the not too distant future that the permanent resident population in small municipalities, which has been dipping slightly year after year, will start to drop substantially.

South Frontenac Council opted for a 2 per cent tax increase for 2017, in passing the 2017 budget at its regular meeting Tuesday night in Sydenham.

The vote was 4-3 with Mayor Ron Vandewal, and Coun. John McDougall, Alan Revill and Ross Sutherland voting in favour (Dep. Mayor Norm Roberts was absent because of two deaths in the family).

Treasurer Louise Fragnito presented Council with four options. The one they chose accommodated the Mayor’s request that any increase be limited to 2 per cent. This option also did away with the $120 solid waste charge, which was rolled into the levy.

CAO/Clerk Wayne Orr said that residents will continue to receive 50 bag tags per residence. However, owners of property without buildings on them will not receive bag tags for those properties.

“Anyone who received bag tags before will continue to receive them,” he said.

Fragnito said in order to get to 2 per cent (the previously voted down budget featured a 2.2 per cent increase) an adjustment of $37,822 would be required and this was achieved by reducing the Working Funds transfer to $9,220 from $47,042.

The 2 per cent increase represents an increase of $29.37 for the average taxpayer, she said.

Vandewal was pleased with the result, despite several councilors and one delegation urging retention of the solid waste tax line.

“I wanted to keep the increase to 2 per cent,” Vandewal said. “I don’t think this change to garbage fees will affect anybody’s recycling habits.”

Coun. Pat Barr and Ron Sleeth, who both voted against the budget, said they wanted to take a longer look at the solid waste fee in light of expected new provincial legislation.

“$120 might not be the right number,” said Sleeth.

Brad Barbeau named to vacant Council seat
South Frontenac Council named Harrowsmith’s Brad Barbeau, who came in third in the last election in Portland District, to take the Council seat left vacant when Bill Robinson died late last year.

In nominating Barbeau, Coun. John McDougall noted that Barbeau still received a sizable number of votes, 793 (Robinson got 872) and is well known in the community, including being the organist at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Sydenham.

Barbeau is currently assistant director of IT operations at the Queen’s University School of Business.

In response to a question from the gallery citing a rumour floating around Harrowsmith that Barbeau had already been offered the position, CAO/Clerk Wayne Orr said that Barbeau had only been asked if he would be available should Council opt for that option.

“Coun. McDougall was told specifically not to talk to him (Barbeau) about it,” said Mayor Ron Vandewal.

A municipal council has several options when replacing a council member including naming the candidate with the next most votes, naming a former politician or prominent community member, soliciting nominations from the public or holding a bi-election.

When Mark Tinlin resigned during the previous Council, Pat Barr, who came in third in the previous election, was asked to take the seat.

Paperless Election
Council voted to go completely paperless for the 2018 election, opting for telephone and/or internet voting only.

Council immediately started making suggestions as to how things should go, such as traveling remote voting stations and such.

However, CAO/Clerk Wayne Orr had to remind them that while Council decides what kind of voting procedures will take place, under the Elections Act, the Clerk is the one who must decide the actual operations of the vote.

“This is to distance the politics from it, but I will take your suggestions under advisement,” Orr said, with the slightest of grins.

Pricey Salt
As the meeting was coming to a close, Mayor Ron Vandewal lamented the fact that there was still more freezing rain in the forecast.

“We’ve already spent $100,000 on salt so far this year,” he said.

As he took the oath as Frontenac County Warden on December 21, South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal was wearing the watch that was presented to his father after he served as Frontenac County Warden in the 1980’s. At that time there were over 20 members of council and warden elections were contested. In the current era, the warden position is passed around between the mayors of the four townships, and the vote that takes place each year is a mere formality. North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins, who will serve as deputy warden in 2017, will take over as warden for the final year of the current mandate in 2018.

Although there was little drama in his election as warden, Vandewal did tear up just a bit as he touched the watch and mentioned that by taking on the warden’s mantle it made his father and him the first father and son to be warden in the 151 year history of the county.

The sentimental moment passed quickly however, as the passage of the 2017 budget was tackled at the beginning of the meeting after being moved up in order to permit Vandewal and his fellow South Frontenac Councilor John McDougall to leave for the wake of long serving South Frontenac Councilor Bill Robinson.
Vandewal voted against the budget, as he had done the previous evening in his own township, and for the same reason.

“We asked staff to bring us a budget with an increase that was no higher than the cost of living increase, plus 0.65% to put towards long term infrastructure. Cost of living is 1.5% so the target was 2.15%, and the budget we have in front of us is 3.15% higher than last year, so I will vote against it,” he said.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle also voted against the 2017 budget, but did not specify a reason.

Before the budget was put to a vote, Doyle had asked that a $1,000 membership in the Canadian School Alliance be put back in the budget. The membership fee had been removed at a Committee of the Whole meeting about the budget that took place in late November. Doyle was away at the time of that meeting.

The Canadian School Alliance is an organisation devoted to saving rural schools from closure. I’d like to see us remain as members of this organisation, it is only $1,000 out of a levy of over $9 million,” he said, to no avail.

The remaining members of council voted to approve the budget.

South Frontenac Township will be without a budget for the first bit of 2017.

A budget featuring a 2.2 per cent increase was voted down at this week’s regular Council meeting in Sydenham.

It was actually a tie vote (there are eight votes on Council currently as Portland representative Bill Robinson passed away last Thursday) with Mayor Ron Vandewal, Dep. Mayor Norm Roberts, Coun. Ron Sleeth and Mark Schjerning each voting against the budget.

For Roberts and Sleeth, the issue was the scrapping of the garbage handling fee in favour of the charge now being rolled into the tax levy. Schjerning said he was voting against the budget “on principle” because “there are a number of things we’re required to do that aren’t in the budget.” Vandewal said he wanted to keep the budget increase to 2.0 per cent.

“I’ve had time to reflect on garbage fees,” Sleeth said. “For things like vacant land, people will be paying garbage tax on that where they haven’t been in the past.” Treasurer Louise Fragnito said that 70 per cent of South Frontenac ratepayers would see a net reduction in the garbage portion of their taxes. Only the top 30 per cent of assessed properties will see a net increase because of the new system.

“I like the budget, there’s nothing magic about 2 per cent,” said Coun. Ross Sutherland.

Treasurer Fragnito’s current report included two more capital projects to be added: a furnace for the museum and docks for the Point ($10,000 each), and an MPAC update in assessment with an increase in growth amounting to an unexpected additional capacity of $48,750. This, combined with adjustments by the township departments, creates a total of $87,525 of unallocated budget resources. Fragnito listed several options: lower taxpayer impact by .2%; fund added capital projects or CFDC’s request for one-time funding (had the County agreed to grant CFDC $35,000 South Frontenac’s portion would have been $20,000), or increase reserves, or fund ‘other projects’. This will be discussed at a later meeting.
Due to a lengthy closed session, the public Council meeting did not convene until 7:40. Other than to confirm that they met with the Township’s solicitor concerning two OMB appeals (Hartington subdivision proposal and proposed Official Plan changes to sections 5.10.2 / 5.11) and ‘property matters’, neither Mayor nor CAO would make any comments.

Councillor Norm Roberts of Storrington was sworn in as Deputy Mayor for the coming year.
Newly-hired Chief Building Official Ryan Arcand was introduced to Council.

Petworth Mill
A brief public meeting addressed zoning changes necessary to permit creation of two residential lots in the hamlet of Petworth. In this unusual situation, Council has decided to accept land to fulfill the parkland dedication requirement, in order to acquire the part of Lot #1 (.2 acres) containing the remains of the Petworth Mill, for future preservation: the lower stone arches of the structure have been judged noteworthy. There were no objections; only one request to consider imposing a speed limit on that part of the road running west through the hamlet from the bridge.

Public Works Q&A
Public Works Manager Mark Segsworth provided a report answering a number of budget-related questions from Council. Eg: Cost to operate a single streetlight? Approximately $0.13 per day. Cost to install them? Up to $10,000 per light if there is no pole present. Why install doors on salt domes being used for storage of vehicles or equipment? Lack of doors is deemed a health and safety issue, due to pigeon faces. All other attempts to deter the pigeons have been unsuccessful.

Applewood Parkland Fee
Council accepted the planner’s recommendation to accept $30,000. as the fee in lieu of parkland offered by the developers of Applewood condominiums in Storrington. This is 5% of the value of the land ($600,000), as appraised by M.W.Cotman & Associates.

OMB Reform
Council agreed, with little discussion, to support the two core principles and 9 recommendations put forward by the Ontario Association of Municipalities (AMO) in their paper; Ontario Municipal Board Reform. These will be forwarded to the Ministry as South Frontenac’s comments on the review of the OMB. The core principles are: 1) municipalities are a mature form of government and are in a  position to take a more rigorous role in land use planning, and: 2) Planning in Ontario should continue to be a public, democratic process. Full details of the nine recommendations, intended to streamline and clarify the OMB process, can be found on the Township website in the agenda notes for the Dec 06 Council.

Canada 150 Community Leader Appointed
Council accepted the nomination of Pam Morey for this role.

Perth Road Fire Hall
The Fire Chief, Supervisor of Facilities and Public Works Manager evaluated four proposals for the design and construction administration of a new fire hall, to be located on Perth Road, north of Wilmer Road. Council approved their recommendation to appoint AWDE Architect of Bethany, Ont (near Peterborough) at a cost of $112,350.25, HST included.

January 2017 Meetings
There will be no Council meeting January 3: the regular schedule will resume with Committee of the Whole Jan 10 and 24, and Council January 17.

There will be no meeting January 31, the fifth Tuesday.

“When we look at projected change in requisition it looks like we are heading towards increases.”

That was the somewhat grim assessment of future budget pressures that will be facing Frontenac County over the next few years by County Treasurer Marian VanBruinessen as Council completed their work on the 2017 budget.

Earlier in the meeting, which took place last Wednesday morning (November 23) Council trimmed $51,200 in special projects, leaving Frontenac ratepayers with a collective bill of $9.37 million for 2017, an increase of $372,216 (4.15%) over 2016. Based on VanBruinessen's analysis, the increase is offset by 1% in growth due to new construction in recent years, leaving a net 3.15% impact on ratepayers.

Council cut a proposed $35,000 one time grant to the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation, as well as a $14,000 fund for community projects, a $1,200 contribution to support the Ontario ATV association AGM in North Frontenac, and a $1,000 membership in the Community Schools alliance in order to trim the increase from $3.72% in the draft budget to the 3.15% impact.

The goal that Council had set for township staff was 1% lower than that. That goal of 2.15% was based on a Consumer Price Index (CPI) report in August that set the annual inflation rate at 1.5%, on top of which a 0.65 % annual increase for ten years has been added by council to go towards the replacement of capital assets.

One enhancement that stayed in the budget was a commitment to reinstating a 12 hour ambulance shift in the City of Kingston. The 12 hour night shift was eliminated in 2013 during tense labour negotiations with OPSEU, which represents the Paramedics, at which time the issue of sick time was raised as well.

Paul Charbonneau, Chief of Emergency Services, told Council last week that response times have remained within the standard set by the service even with one less shift, mainly because Lennox and Addington built a base in Loyalist township, cutting 1,000 cross border calls to Frontenac Paramedic Service (FPS) each year. As well, FPS ceased doing patient transfers for Kingston General Hospital, making paramedics more available for emergency calls.

“That worked for four years, but in 2016 we saw a 4% increase in calls and we project we will continue to see an increase, which will mean we will no longer be able to keep to our response time standard,” said Charbonneau.

In order to soften the blow for ratepayers, Charbonneau proposed instituting the new shift in July of 2017 instead of January. Also, the new shift will only be an 8 hour shift for the first 18 months, only reaching 12 hours in January of 2019. This keeps the impact on the 2017 county budget to $30,000.

There was a short debate about whether to follow Charbonneau’s recommendation to bring a new shift on stream. When challenged,  Charbonneau insisted that it is important for FPS to remain pro-active and not wait for the response times to fall behind the standard before adding a shift.

The Frontenac Paramedics, including OPSEU local 462 President Shauna Dunn, attended the meeting. Afterwards they said they were pleased with the decision to bring back the shift.

“But this is not an enhancement,” Dunn said, “we are only getting back to where we were in 2013 and it will take another two years to get there.”

As of January 2019, there will be five 24 hour ambulances in Kingston,  24 hour ambulances stationed in Sydenham and Parham, and a 12 hour daytime ambulance at Robertsville in North Frontenac.
The 2017 Frontenac County Budget process was aided by a decrease in the Fairmount Home budget, which came about as the result of an increase in provincial funding that was accomplished through the purchase of new tracking software as well as other measures.

“We won’t see those sorts of increases in funding again,” said Councilor John Inglis, echoing the concern expressed by VanBruinessen that in future years Council will find it even more difficult to keep costs to within the rate of inflation, even with healthy levels of growth.

As members of Frontenac County Council sit down this week to consider the 2017 county budget, they will be facing a document that includes an increase of $333,635.60 in the amount of money to be levied to ratepayers for county programs in 2017.

As Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender said in the report accompanying the budget document, staff worked towards building a budget that kept the increase to within the 1.5% inflation rate for 2016, but found it difficult given a number of factors.

One that he mentioned in particular was a $111,000 increase in the base budget for Frontenac Paramedic Services.

“This increase results from salary and benefit costs,” he said, “the additional reserve transfer re the [new] stretchers and the ongoing phase in of the Wolfe Island enhancement.”

The $111,000 cost is being brought into the levy over three years to mitigate its impact.

Still, there are other projects that, if left in the budget would result in an increase approaching 5%.

In presenting the budget to Council, staff recommended a series of changes to bring it back to the 3.72% level.

The budget includes a $35,000 one time grant to the Frontenac CFDC for operational purposes.

After a budget session this week, changes will be incorporated into the final version, which is set for approval at the December meeting.

Also, at the meeting Frances Smith will be stepping down as Warden to be replaced by Ron Vandewal.

South Frontenac Council met as a Committee of the Whole on Saturday morning (November 12) to go over the 2017 township budget. Parts of the budget had been brought to committee meetings as far back as early September, but this was the first time the entire package was presented. The budget numbers were no surprise, as the township has embarked on a 10 year budget and infrastructure plan which calls for an increase of 2.2% per year over that time. The biggest structural change in this years budget is a revenue neutral change for the township which will, however, impact some ratepayers.

The township is scrapping a $180 waste management user fee to each household. The revenue that those fees generated (about $1.2 million) will now come from general taxation. What that means for ratepayers is those whose property is valued under the township average of about $250,000 will end up paying more than $180 towards the waste management budget and those who's property is worth less will pay less.

Aside from that change, staff proposed some cuts to the budget to meet the 2.2% target. These include the following cuts: a 35,000 grant for Ken Garrett Park, a $35,000 grant to the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation (which was only to be enacted if Frontenac County decided not to support the agency this year), $53,000 in public works staffing costs for a mechanic and a light equipment operator, $50,000 that was to be placed in a reserve fund for the Frontenac Arena, and $6,600 for operating costs for an outdoor movie screen at Harrowsmith Park. The total cuts amounts to a savings of $180,327.

The net result of all those changes is to bring in a budget with an increase in the total levy to ratepayers for township purposes of about $750,000 this year. That increase is covered by new assessment (ie growth) of 0.85% and from the 2.2% average tax increase.

Among other changes that were made to some of the budget proposals that came to Council earlier in the process was a scrapping of the plan to repair and resurface the Sunbury and Westport Roads, multi-million dollar projects that were to be financed through borrowing. $150,000 has remained in the 2017 budget for engineering work on Sunbury Road, which will make it “shovel ready” should a large infrastructure grant become available.

Among major road projects still on the books this year are two large jobs. One is the Harrowsmith intersection upgrade and reconfiguration which will cost over $1.5 million all told, with $1 million of that coming from 2017 taxes. The other is the Bedford Road north of Sydenham which will cost $1 million to upgrade. Another $600,000 will be spent on Green Bay bridge #28, $350,000 on Randy Clark Road, $300,000 on Buck Bay Road, and $250,000 on Bradshaw Road.

The largest project on a township building is a $1 million project at the Storrington Centre, of which $550,000 will come from 2017 taxation and the rest from reserve funds. That project includes accessible washrooms, an updated septic system, parking lot improvements, retrofitting, a kitchen upgrade and space reconfiguration.

At the meeting on Saturday, there were two additional requests for funding that were considered. One came from Mike Nolan of the Tett Park Association. Tett Road runs off of Perth Road near the border with the Township of Rideau Lakes. On behalf of the association, Nolan asked that the road be paved and that streetlights be installed at the junction of Tett and Perth Roads. Council instructed Treasurer Louise Fragnito to put $10,000 in the budget for the street lights but put off the paving project. The other request came from Southern Frontenac Community Services (SFCS), which is looking for $25,000 to help cover some unexpected planning and building department fees from the township related to the new portables the agency has brought on to its Grace Centre site in Sydenham.

“We perceive the cost increases to be the result of major changes required by the Building Department. Many of these changes appear to have lacked clear communication and interpretation of building codes. This has also resulted in major deviations from our original plan,” said SFCS Executive Director David Townsend in a letter to Council.

Council referred the SFSC request to Chief Administrative Officer Wayne Orr, who will be talking to David Townsend about the situation.

The township budget will be on the agenda at the next regular Committee of the Whole meeting on November 22nd . A number of changes will be made based on recommendations from last Saturday's meeting.

The budget is set for adoption on December 3rd .