Cty_council_07-48
The Frontenac County budget is a bit like an iceberg in a fog. The amount of money that county ratepayers contribute is the only part that shows, but even that can be hard to see.
The county will spend over $35 million in 2008, but only about $8.21 million, or 23.7%, will come from county taxpayers, according to a preliminary draft budget that was presented to a special meeting of county council last week.
And of the $8.21 million the county will collect, about $3.5 million will immediately be transferred to the City of Kingston, which administers Ontario Works, Family Benefit supports, Child Care and Social Housing programs for the county.
The two major programs that the county itself runs, the Frontenac Land Ambulance Service and the Fairmount Home for the Aged, both have budgets in the $10 million range. The draft land ambulance budget for 2008 is $10,891,124, and the Fairmount Home budget is $9,389,637, but those budgets are heavily subsidized by other levels of government, and in Fairmount's case, by resident fees as well.
For 2008, it is projected that the county levy for the Fairmount Home operating budget will amount to $721,984, a 10% decrease from 2007. The county will also pay an additional $335,295 towards a 20-year debenture on an expansion of the home that was completed three years ago. The county share of ambulance costs is pegged at $1.25 million next year, a 3.3% increase over 2007.
The purpose of receiving the draft budget last week was to give the Frontenac County mayors a chance to look over the figures, receive clarification, and prepare to debate the budget in earnest in early January. Meetings have been set for January 9 and 16, when some of the numbers in the budget will have been firmed up, to debate the budget in earnest.
“I won't have much to say today,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor, and incoming county warden, Jim Vanden Hoek as the session began. “We're just going to look at the information”.
There was an opportunity for a couple of new items to be discussed, such as an item in the library budget, a $97,000 charge for the county’s share of a new book check out system. The system has been planned for over three years, and when the library staff made a presentation to council, they said that they had waited until the end to bill the county for its share of the cost.
County staff had only heard about the charge one week earlier, after the project was completed.
“This has led to a significant depletion of our library reserve,” said County CAO Liz Savill, “I'm not suggesting there was anything not shared, but it certainly was not highlighted. We need to work on our communication with the library.”
In 2008, the province will take back some of the downloaded costs, including $300,000 from a drug benefit plan, and this is part of the reason that the amount of money the county will be levying to ratepayers is projected to decrease by 3% this year.
Upon hearing that the county has been advised to anticipate a 3% increase in the budget for Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Public Health, and that local ratepayers pay a higher percentage of public health costs than other ratepayers in Eastern Ontario, which cost the county $600,000 last year, Mayor Vanden Hoek said, “The intent of the moves the province has been making is to free up money on the municipal side for roads and bridges. If we don’t challenge these external agencies, then the money will be taken up by other bodies. I suggest, in tandem with the city, that we raise a red flag, delicately and diplomatically.”
“I don't think Public Health has any programs that are not mandated by the province,” said CAO Savill.
County staff are also looking for over $100,000 in capital upgrades to the IT department; including $43,325 for a new server and thin client system, $9,000 for a fire-wall, $7,000 for data storage, $20,000 for a network backup solution, $7,000 for a network fax server, $7,000 for a spam filter, and $22,000 for video conferencing equipment.
The draft budget includes $54,000 for a donation to the Kingston Hospital Foundation, as approved one week earlier by council. It also included money for the Rural Routes Transportation Service, although Mayors Davison and Vanden Hoek both indicated once again that they would oppose leaving money for Rural Routes in the 2008 budget.
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Feature Article - November 29, 2007Frontenac County Councilby Jeff Green
Frontenac County donates $54,000 annually to Kingston hospitals
The University Hospitals Kingston Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Kingston hospitals, asked Frontenac County for $1.87 million over 10 years to help with expansion projects at Hotel Dieu, Kingston General, and Providence Continuing Care hospitals.
They will have to settle for $540,000.
Frontenac County Council was presented with a range of options by county staff, including paying the entire request, which would have meant a 2.28% increase in county taxes.
On the other end of the scale, since Hotel Dieu hospital recently sold the ambulance station on Palace Road in Kingston to the county-run ambulance service for $750,000, county staff floated the option of indicating to the Foundation “that it considers the purchase of the Palace Road property as its contribution to the campaign.”
The county is still unhappy about having to pay $750,000 to Hotel Dieu, because the hospital originally built the base using a provincial grant, and since then has only been paying a nominal fee of $5,000 annually to the City of Kingston to lease the land the base was built on.
While the University Foundation request was based on a calculation of just over $6.00 for each patient visit to the three hospitals in 2005-2006, the Frontenac mayors were drawn to a cheaper option.
The University Hospitals Foundation request to the City of Kingston translates into 0.64% of the city’s tax levy, and 0.64% of the Frontenac County tax levy amounts to a donation of $54,000 each year, which the Frontenac mayors favoured.
“I’d like to have gone further, but I think that’s all we can afford,” said South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison.
Janet Gutowski and Jim Vanden Hoek from
Central Frontenac and Frontenac Islands respectively, agreed.
Warden Ron Maguire was interested in an even less expensive option, and asked how much the county would be donating if the multiplier of 0.44% was used, which is the amount pledged paid towards a previous health care funding scheme. After some quick calculating, County Treasurer Marian Vanbruinessen said it would amount to $37,000 per year. With three mayors supporting a $54,000 annual donation, Maguire did not press the issue.
Budget for conferences established – In response to a request a few months ago from Frontenac Islands Mayor Vanden Hoek for compensation for expenses he incurred securing an election to the County Caucus of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the county decided to look at the entire issue of external activities of members.
A report, Governance – remuneration for additional duties was presented. It delineated the kinds of activities the county would support as the Frontenac mayors attempt to raise the profile of the county on a regional and provincial basis. It recommended setting aside $30,000 to $40,000 in the 2008 budget for that purpose.
“I think we should start on the low end,” said Jim Vanden Hoek, “making $30,000 an upset limit.”
The matter was forwarded to budget deliberations.
Library to cost county ratepayers more in ’08 –
Deborah Defoe, the Chief Executive Officer of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, presented the library budget to Frontenac County Council. It calls for an increase of $36,390 in the levy to the county, or 4.49%. Included in the increase are capital costs for a new materials identification system, which is replacing scanning technology with a radio frequency technology to save staff time checking books in and out, other technological upgrades, and a projected increase in labour costs.
“We don’t know what our labour costs will be,” Defoe said, “because as you know, we are unionized and 2008 is a negotiation year, so we went with our best estimate.”
Preliminary budget – County Council will have its first look at the 2008 budget estimates this week.
New warden elected – As is the county’s custom, Warden Ron Maguire tendered his resignation after serving one year, effective December 1. Current Deputy Warden Jim Vanden Hoek was elected as Warden for 2008, and Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski will become Deputy Warden in 2008, putting her in line to be the Warden in 2009. In the final year of the term, 2010, South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison will likely be the County Warden.
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Feature Article - January 31, 2008 Frontenac County to approve budget in Sharbot Lake on February 20. By Jeff GreenFrontenac County Council will hold an afternoon meeting in Sharbot Lake on February 20, in conjunction with the Frontenac Heritage Festival, and according to County Warden Jim Vanden Hoek, Council will approve the 2008 budget on that date.
In a special meeting devoted to the budget on January 23, council took about 15 minutes to hear from Julie Shillington about the budget for Fairmount Home and Paul Charbonneau from the Frontenac Ambulance Service before giving tentative approval to each of their budgets. Over $20 million of the $35 million county budget was thus dispatched.
The had more difficulty with the transportation file, taking about 90 minutes to reject a proposal to fund the Rural Routes Transportation Service to the tune of $40,000, then deciding to provide $10,000 in bridge funding for the service.
A proposal to spend $100,000 from funds transferred to the county from a federal gas tax rebate on video-conferencing equipment for the county office and the four township offices was removed from the budget pending comment from the townships’ Chief Administrative Officers, who will be meeting in February.
Council also considered a staff proposal to hire a Human Resources Manager, to be funded mostly from the ambulance budget. After some debate, the position remained in the budget.
The budget also includes in excess of $50,000 for computer hardware and software, which is offset by a decrease in projected legal fees of $75,000.
The overall levy to taxpayers for county taxes will be going down in 2008 by approximately 3%. County taxes make up about 25% of the municipal tax bill. Education taxes, which have remained constant for several years, account for 22%, while township taxes account for the remaining 53%.
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Feature Article - January 31, 2008 Frontenac County to approve budget in Sharbot Lake on February 20. By Jeff GreenFrontenac County Council will hold an afternoon meeting in Sharbot Lake on February 20, in conjunction with the Frontenac Heritage Festival, and according to County Warden Jim Vanden Hoek, Council will approve the 2008 budget on that date.
In a special meeting devoted to the budget on January 23, council took about 15 minutes to hear from Julie Shillington about the budget for Fairmount Home and Paul Charbonneau from the Frontenac Ambulance Service before giving tentative approval to each of their budgets. Over $20 million of the $35 million county budget was thus dispatched.
They had more difficulty with the transportation file, taking about 90 minutes to reject a proposal to fund the Rural Routes Transportation Service to the tune of $40,000, then deciding to provide $10,000 in bridge funding for the service.
A proposal to spend $100,000 from funds transferred to the county from a federal gas tax rebate on video-conferencing equipment for the county office and the four township offices was removed from the budget pending comment from the townships’ Chief Administrative Officers, who will be meeting in February.
Council also considered a staff proposal to hire a Human Resources Manager, to be funded mostly from the ambulance budget. After some debate, the position remained in the budget.
The budget also includes in excess of $50,000 for computer hardware and software, which is offset by a decrease in projected legal fees of $75,000.
The overall levy to taxpayers for county taxes will be going down in 2008 by approximately 3%. County taxes make up about 25% of the municipal tax bill. Education taxes, which have remained constant for several years, account for 22%, while township taxes account for the remaining 53%.
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Feature Article - March 20, 2008 Addington Highlands Council – March 17, 2008 By Jule Koch BrisonBrian Shier, the landowner who has become involved in a dispute with neighbours after he closed a section of the Cross Lake Road that gives them access to their properties, attended Monday night’s council meeting in Denbigh along with members of his family and a friend, Bob Beyers.The group was not on the meeting’s agenda, but Beyers asked for permission to address council. He said, “The Cross Road business is really wrecking this family… it wouldn’t take a whole lot to widen [the Addington Road] so people would stop hounding them.”
The Addington Road also provides access for people living on the Cross Lake Road beyond Shier’s property, but it is very rough.
Reeve Henry Hogg said that council was waiting for surveys, but it hasn’t been possible to do the surveys because of the winter.
Brian Shier then said he had the surveys that council needed, and asked if he could show his deed, which he had brought with him, to the councilors. Permission was granted and Shier took the documents to the council table, where he spent some time showing certain details to the councilors.
Reeve Hogg maintained that council still needed a survey, but said that council would act once they had it.
The Shiers and Bob Beyers then left the meeting.
Denbigh Ambulance: Reeve Hogg told council that he recently found out two things about the Denbigh Ambulance Service that he previously did not know. The first was that for the last few months, when the Northbrook Ambulance is called out, the Denbigh Ambulance goes to the Northbrook base to stand by, a practice that council is concerned about because it creates too long a response time for emergencies in Denbigh. A taxpayer, Suzanne Lee, had sent a letter to council about the matter.“They have to have washroom facilities when they’re on standby so they go to Northbrook,” said Hogg. Council decided to arrange for the ambulance attendants to have a key to the Cloyne fire hall so they could stand by there.
“But I can tell you there’s going to be a county-wide needs study on ambulance service between now and October,” said Henry Hogg, “and it is not likely going to work out well for us up here because our call volume is so low.”
The second discovery was that the ambulance did not have snow tires. “Someone at Pringle Ford told them they didn’t need snow tires on dual-wheeled vehicles,” Hogg said. Pringle Ford is a Napanee dealership.
Letters to obstructers: Roads Supervisor Royce Rosenblath brought photos to council of a road that was obstructed by a homeowner blowing snow back onto the roadway after it had been plowed. Besides the cost of having to send the plow out a second time, he said the practice also creates a danger, as unsuspecting vehicles could run into the snow. Rosenblath sought council’s approval for a letter he had prepared to send to those who are known to create the problem.
Rosenblath also showed council photos of cars that had been left parked on County Road 30, creating problems for the plows. He had prepared a second letter to be laminated and put on the cars’ windshields. Council approved the distribution of both letters.Hartsmere Bridge: The Hartsmere bridge construction is going well, Rosenblath reported. He said the bridge would be erected on Wednesday of this week.
Flinton Hall parking lot: Deputy Reeve Yanch said that she had received some complaints because the snow has diminished the parking lot’s capacity. Royce Rosenblath said it costs about $5000 a day to remove snow and it would take more than a day to clear the lot. “It’s quite an expense for 2 – 3 weeks,” he said. Yanch pointed out that when people rent the hall for functions they also rent the parking lot, and said the township should have a policy to deal with the situation. Councilor Louise Scott also pointed out that the Recreation Club’s Easter dinner is coming up this Saturday and usually draws 600 – 700 people.Council will formulate a policy and Rosenblath said he would try to push the banks back.
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Feature Article -April 10, 2008 Addington Highlands Councilby Jeff GreenTyendinaga occupation yields increased police presence in AH
Addington Highlands Council received a bi-monthly report on policing services at a council meeting this past Monday, April 7, and it was reported that crime levels for January and February in the township were very low.
Becaue of the ongoing occupation at the Tyendinaga Reserve, the OPP Napanee detachment is on a 24-hour alert situation, meaning that regardless of illness or any other factor, 10 officers must be available in the detachment at all times. This has led to increased policing throughout the county, even on the north end.
There were no assaults or sexual assault charges laid in the township during that time frame, but there were 110 driving offence notices issued in January and February.
Denbigh Ambulance – Roy Berndt from the Denbigh Ambulance Committee assured council that the committee intends to “use diplomacy in working toward our goals, but we have to be strong enough to keep the base where it is”. A large delegation will be attending Lennox and Addington County Council this week in Napanee.
“We will be asking for a copy of the study before the report is acted upon” Berndt said, “Our main purpose is to be helpful.
“We appreciate that,” said Deputy Mayor Helen Yanch.
Cross Road – Lea Dowling appeared with Norene Traynor to once again talk about the Cross Road passageway issue, which seems to be headed to court.
“I don’t think there is much more we can do,” said Reeve Henry Hogg, “short of expropriation.”
“Have you done that?” asked Dowling.
“We tried to buy it, that’s all,” said Henry Hogg.
Public works – The township is joining a county-wide purchasing group for two years’ supply of salt.
An environmental assessment is underway for the Flinton Bridge, and Reeve Hogg said the township is still trying to find out what rules they must follow in spending almost $500,000 in new money from the province.
“We have a total of 15 bridges that either need repair or need replacing,” said Public Works Manager Rpyce Rosenblath.
“We need to be very cautious with our expenditures,” said Henry Hogg.
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Letters - July 24, 2008 Letters: July 24Re: Northbrook Cenetery Hit By Vandals, Gilda Berger
Standby Ambulance Facility, Lynn Dodds
Consultation?, Helen Crowe
Re: Northbrook Cemetery Hit by VandalsBravo to Sonja Alcock (letter, July 24, 2008) and Minister Judith Evenden for denouncing the anti-Semitic allegations and actions against Camp Gesher, a Jewish camp that has been in the area for 45 years. Some in the Northbrook community had accused Gesher staff of being the culprits in vandalizing the Northbrook United Church Cemetery on July 17. Following the cemetery desecration, some vigilantes went on a retaliatory binge on Gesher’s grounds , wreaking damage that delivered a violent and hateful message. In addition, a few townspeople from Northbrook hurled some anti-semitic comments at a staff person from Gesher who was shopping there.
I am the parent of a Gesher counselor. We have visited the camp on many occasions over the years while our children were campers, and we often stopped in Northbrook for shopping, and eating. Many of our Gesher friends spend at least one weekend overnight in Northbrook on visitor’s day weekend, or when transporting our children to and from camp. We have always been treated with warmth and friendliness by the Northbrook community and have always felt that the camp is connected to that community. All the Gesher parents were terribly distressed and saddened by the news of the cemetery damage. We were equally upset by the destructive and menacing events which followed, on Gesher property, and we worried for the safety of our children.
The camp leaders assured us that we could trust the Northbrook community to support us, and protect us because of the long-standing good relationship between Northbrook and Camp Gesher. We were encouraged to refuse to let the behaviour of a few, tarnish the goodness of many.
Thank you, Ms. Alcock and Ms. Evenden for speaking up, and confirming to us that there is certainly more good than evil, and for extending a hand of friendship at a time of need.
Gilda Berger
Standby Facility for Denbigh AmbulanceDuring the 10 years of operating the Moosehorn Restaurant, the Denbigh Ambulance Operators always had access to our building and facilities. The Ambulance personnel were given the numeric access code to our side door and advised that they could use it on a 24 hour — 7 day basis.
Due to personal reasons I have decided to retire from restaurant services — HOWEVER, the building and facilities are still available to the Ambulance personnel. There is someone on site at all times, there is an intercom system in the open front lobby for emergency purposes (ie. Gasoline, accidents, O.P.P.) and I am more than willing to let the ambulance use this facility for standby. There are washrooms available, a kettle, tea, coffee and telephone etc. should they need them.
I know from personal experience that when you are waiting for an ambulance, every minute seems like five. A friend of mine had an unexpected heart attack while visiting. The Denbigh Ambulance responded within 10 minutes but I observed the stress level of he and his wife rise moment to moment. Due to stress his pain became more severe but once the ambulance arrived he relaxed considerably. I firmly believe that if my friend had been required to wait for a longer period of time he would not be alive today. This is the reason I feel it is imperative that the ambulance service must be available in the northern portion of Lennox and Addington. It is also the reason that I have no reservations about making my facility available to the Denbigh (or Northbrook) E.M.S.Lynne Dodds
Consultation?The "consultation" process the Shabot Obaadjiwan is involved in is a sham, just as the failed talks in February were.
The government employees involved have no power to make any important decisions, and the official position is still that drilling will happen. George White, the owner of Frontenac Ventures, hassaid that drilling could begin anytime after the 31st of July.
Frontenac Ventures and the construction company involved in site preparation will be in court on Aug.7 to answer charges of environmental infractions stemming from road building. No charges were laid against the people who attended the story telling with Bob Lovelace last Monday, or the people who visited Robertsville later in the week.
Helen Crowe
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Feature Article - September 18, 2008 Ambulance Review in DenbighBy Angela BrightAs expected, nearly one hundred people were in attendance on Tuesday night at the Denbigh Hall, and they were all eager to hear about the Ambulance Service and Organizational Review.
Tom Bedford, Manager of Ambulance Services for the County of Lennox and Addingon, was on hand. He introduced Marvin Rubinstein of IBI Group, which has been hired to perform Lennox and Addington's County- wide review.
Mr. Rubinstein began by laying out the scope of the review, which includes four main items; to review organizational structures, appropriate geographic location of service, future viability, and cost. Charts and graphs were used to display wages/honorariums, call volumes, cross border calls, and how the numbers in each of these aspects differ vastly from the north end of the County to the south end.
For example, of the calls Denbigh receives, 59 percent are cross border calls, whereas only 17 percent of the calls in Napanee are cross border calls.
This statistic was exemplified by looking around the room, as a decent number of people at the meeting hailed from neighbouring counties, including Councilor Perry from North Frontenac and Councilor Lehnhardt of Greater Madawaska. When a Denbigh ambulance leaves for a call in a neighbouring county, there is no vehicle left at the local base.
However, when a Napanee ambulance is out on call, the Northbrook amblance shifts to Tamworth area, and the Denbigh amulance goes to Northbrook. Residents are very concerned about the time the local ambulance is absent from the local service area and welcomed the ability, as someone stated, to "quantify our anger and frustration" so as to include it in the review. One attendee raised the concern that many people often choose to drive themselves or their relatives or neighbours to the hospital rather than calling for an ambulance, thus lowering the call volume numbers for the Denbigh base.
Many points and questions came up during the discussion/suggestion period. Mr. Bedford was asked to explain why the beds have been removed from the local base, to which he replied that the Denbigh base is a "working base", because of the 12 hour shifts. Mr. Bedford also explained that Denbigh ambulances need to go all the way to the Northbrook when they are on standby instead of halfway, He said it was due to liability and that ambulances must stay on County property.
Near the end of the meeting the question was posed to Mr. Rubinstein, ""What do we need to do right now?"
He answered simply, "By doing what you are doing; staying on top of things."
Reeve Hogg added that each one should be in touch with their MPP to advise them of the issue as well. Mr. Bedford also made a few copies of the report "Ambulance Funding Issues" available. The report has been presented to the Honourable David Caplan, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care in August, in the hope that he will address the financial challenges that the County and residents face.
Within the week, this document should be posted on the County's web site, www.lennox-addington.on.ca.
In approximately 3 weeks time, the consultant's final report should be prepared and it will then be presented to County Council in October.
All through the meeting, poster sized displays stared back from the front wall with newspaper clippings and articles from years passed about the ambulance service, and how from its inception, has so greatly served the surrounding area. Ruby Malcolm organized and put together the articles for an ambulance reunion held two years ago.
It is amazing to see how far the service has come and will be even more interesting to see where we are headed.
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Feature Article - November 6, 2008 Denbigh Ambulance report in, decisions to follow.By Jeff GreenIt's all laid out in charts, graphs, a variety of options and cost projections, but the one thing the 68-page Ambulance Service and Organizational Review for Lennox and Addington does not do is make the hard decisions about the future of the service provided out of the Northbrook and Denbigh ambulance bases.
Those decisions will hinge on the recommendations that county staff bring back to L&A County Council, as well as on potential cross border arrangements to be negotiated with Renfrew and Frontenac counties, and ultimately on political decisions by county council itself.
The report takes a comprehensive look at the service in the entire county, and in terms of the northern service it recommends that the way paramedics are accredited and paid be amalgamated between the south and north, which the consultants estimate would increase the cost of providing the northern service by $1 million per year.
The report lays out four options for service in the north in the future.
Option #1 would see the maintenance of the status quo, a 24-hour ambulance at both the Northbrook and Denbigh stations. Option #2 would see a repositioning of both bases to be closer to neighbouring counties, Frontenac for Northbrook, and Renfrew for Denbigh, with partnership agreements to help pay for the cost of the service.
Option #3 would see a reduction of the Denbigh base to a daytime 12-hour shift, and option #4 would see the “elimination of one of the two northern bases and the repositioning of the other to a location more or less equidistant between the existing two”.
“The preferred scenario,” says the report “is that 24/7 ambulance service coverage be maintained at Denbigh and Northbrook. To sustain this level of coverage at Denbigh and Northbrook, and to avoid the entire future increase in cost falling onto the local tax base, the county will have to aggressively pursue new/additional sources of funding.”
The county submitted a business case to the Ministry of Health for the ministry to cover 50% of the increased costs that may be incurred by keeping the two bases open because they serve a wide, under-populated rural area, but the Ministry did not approve the case.
Of the 643 calls to the Northbrook station last year, 36% were from locations outside of the county, and 25% of the total calls (161) were from Frontenac County.
For Denbigh, 59% of the 222 calls were from outside L&A, with 28% (63 calls) coming from Frontenac County, and 23% (53 calls) coming from Renfrew County. The Eastern Ontario Treasurers Association has been looking at cross border billing for ambulance service, and recommends that a value of $170 be established for each call.
The consultant’s report says that the treasurers realised that this figure is inadequate for areas such as Northbrook and Denbigh, where because of geography and low call volumes, the cost average per call can exceed $1,000.
“For such situations, the Eastern Ontario Treasurers recommended that the neighbouring municipalities should review and implement a deployment strategy to ensure that one municipality is not carrying an unreasonable burden providing service to a neighbouring municipality.”
The organisational review is full of data and was written carefully. It does not push one option or another. That will be left to the ambulance managers and the politicians in three counties to figure out.
Meanwhile, the ad hoc Denbigh Ambulance Service Committee that sprung up last spring, as well as Addington Highlands Council, and L&A County Council, have been spending some time reading and studying the report.
In an interview with the News, Tom Bedford, the Manager of Emergency Services for the County, said that county staff is putting into place several recommendations in the report, including informing the province and neighbouring counties about the contents of the report and the role that the L&A service needs them to play in order to maintain the level of service in the north.
It will take some time before residents of Denbigh and Northbrook will know what the future holds for their local ambulance service.
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Back to HomeFeature Article - December 3, 2009Frontenac County CouncilBy Jeff GreenMayor seeks deep cuts to the Fairmount Home budget
The Fairmount Home in Glenburnie prides itself on a “gentle care” philosophy, but Frontenac County Council will be giving Fairmount's budget some harsh attention this year, if Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek has his way.
At the tail end of a day-long meeting on November 18, some preliminary numbers for the 2010 budget were presented to Frontenac County Council. Included was the budget for Fairmount Home.
The projected 2010 Fairmount Home budget for 2010 is up only marginally from 2009, to $10.2 million. That budget is only partially derived from municipal taxation; the provincial government will pay $4.7 million and resident fees account for $3 million. Frontenac County ratepayers are on tap for about 1/3 of the $2.5 million municipal share, with the City of Kingston covering the rest. Thanks to a projected increase in resident fees in 2010, the contribution from Frontenac County ratepayers to Fairmount is projected to decrease by 5% next year, to a shade under $800,000.
Those numbers didn't satisfy Vanden Hoek however, who put forward a notice of motion to county council that he would be seeking a 5% decrease in the overall Fairmount budget in 2010, and a similar decrease each year for four more years.
This, if implemented, would result in a budget of under $8 million for the home by 2014.
Vanden Hoek's notice of motion comes on the heels of a consultant's report from early in 2009 that said Fairmount's cost per patient is higher than the provincial average. At that time Vanden Hoek asked Fairmount senior management to come up with a cost-cutting plan, and his budget request seems poised to put some increased pressure on that planning process.
A cost comparison shows that Fairmount does cost more to run than other homes in the region - 14% more than Lanark Lodge and 10% more than the John Parrot Centre.
Lanark Lodge in Perth, which is owned and operated by Lanark County, had a budget of $11.25 million in 2009 for 163 residents, an average cost of $69,000 per resident. The John Parrot Centre in Napanee, which is owned and operated by Lanark County, had a $12.1 million budget for 168 residents, an average annual cost of $72,000 per resident.
At $10.1 million for 128 residents, the average patient cost at Fairmount was $79,000 in 2009.
Frontenac County Council will consider Vanden Hoek's motion at their meeting in January, when the 2010 county budget will be on the table.
South Frontenac dings county for $42 grand for an acre
The new ambulance base in South Frontenac will be located on Stagecoach Road next to the Sydenham water tower.
At a special in camera meeting of Frontenac County Council on Monday night, a county purchase of the property, which is owned by South Frontenac Township, was finalized. The county will pay South Frontenac $42,000 for the one-acre parcel, and the base is slated for construction in 2010.
Frontenac County applied for, and received, a federal/provincial stimulus grant to build the base. A study of ambulance service needs in the county that was completed this past spring concluded that a new base in South Frontenac, and a 24-hour ambulance, is necessary.
The senior levels of government will provide up to $500,000 for construction of the base, and the ambulance service will cover 1/3 of the total cost.
The projected cost of maintaining a 24-hour, 365 day a year ambulance at the base is over $750,000 per year.
The Frontenac County land ambulance services covers the City of Kingston and Frontenac County. The Province of Ontario covers 50% of the costs; City of Kingston ratepayers about 40% and Frontenac County ratepayers pay about 10%.
