North Frontenac Council - Apr 8/16

Jonas Bonnetta | Apr 14, 2016

Mr. Pender goes to Plevna

County Wardeb Frances Smith, and Frontenac County CAO Kelly Pender, made a presentation to North Frontenac Council on Friday.

Pender said that natural gas and hydro delivery issues, policing costs, economic development, and closing the cell service gap are priorities for the County in 2016.

“Part of our new budget regime is to pass the budget earlier,” Pender said. “It gives us the opportunity to get bids out on projects earlier and gives the municipalities a better chance to figure out how the County works into your budget as well.”

Pender told Council that they've set aside $500,000 for economic development and that he hopes to double that by applying for grants. They hope to hire a community development officer who would be able to work full-time with businesses and residents of the township in growing their businesses or starting new ones.

He also said that part of that money is being spent on re-branding and money is also being invested in developing accommodations in both North and Central Frontenac.

Pender said work is being done close the cell phone service gap and that the two main obstacles are coverage and capacity. The County is working towards 98% coverage in the township and is looking for capacity, the uploading and downloading, to reach a minimum of 5 megabytes per second throughout the area.

Pender also spoke about the County owned Fairmount Home and its challenges. The home is dealing with shorter lengths of stay. He explained that the length of stay used to be 5-10 years but that the length of stay is now about 2 years.

“People are coming to us sicker,” Pender told council. “We're moving towards providing less bingo and more feeding tubes, more wound care, more dementia cases.”

Pender explained that the County's Official Plan was approved by the province in February and that it “should reduce turnaround times for approvals, taking the province out of the official plan changes for North Frontenac.”

Denbigh ambulance base a concern to council

Councilor Wayne Good asked Pender about the County's stance on the Denbigh ambulance base, which is located in neighbouring Lennox and Addington County (L&A)

“The Denbigh ambulance station is a very difficult situation for L&A as well as Frontenac, Renfrew, and Hastings,” Pender explained. “Our stance at this point is that we're willing to work with them. Part of the motion was that we want to sit down and talk about how to make this work.”

The costs per call at the Denbigh station, based on a recent study, are high compared to the other stations in the surrounding areas because they receive fewer calls per year yet still have to pay to staff the station. Also, the station in Denbigh is leased and is in need of repair. The station responds to 133 calls per year, on average, and about 25% of them are in Frontenac County. One of the options being considered by the County of Lennox and Addington is closing the Denbigh station and moving that ambulance down to the Loyalist station in the very southern part of the County.

Councilor Good is concerned that if the Denbigh station is closed then the ambulance serving that surrounding area has to come all the way from Northbrook.

“If that Northbrook ambulance has to go to Renfrew or Bancroft [for a call] it could be 4-6 hours before there'd be an ambulance available, depending on the part of the township,” Good said.

Lennox and Addington have reached out to the surrounding counties, Renfrew, Hastings, and Frontenac, for supplemental funding but so far the proposal has been rejected.

Isaacs shines a little light on solar

Paul Isaacs, a representative from the so-called Democratic Municipality of Denbigh, presented a paper to Council on the repercussions and issues of continuing to use oil and spoke on the benefits of using solar in North Frontenac.

“A strong, resilient rural community is one that doesn't depend on the grid,” Isaacs told Council. “It's one that has its own infrastructure locally for generating it's own energy. That's your future. It's right in line with your plan.

“I think you can have a big impact with your cottagers,” Isaacs explained. “They are paying delivery charges all winter long even though they aren't here. They can use the solar in the summer time and get off the hydro and stop paying those costs all winter long.”

“You could invest in some solar products and sell them back into the municipality at cost and that would give people here a local place where they wouldn't have to worry about where to source these things from. You could designate someone on staff to become more knowledgeable about it so when you get someone with a question, as a municipality, you could answer it.”

“I don't think that the municipality necessarily has a place in providing people with what's available commercially,” Councilor John Inglis said. “If you're interested in solar just Google it.”

Councillor Hermer was concerned about the maintenance and upkeep of the expensive batteries that are needed for the backup system and that cottagers would have a difficult time keeping the system functioning.

“The idea with solar is it won't maintain a twentieth-century lifestyle,” Isaacs responded. “Solar will not provide you with the ability to turn on your hair dryer at 3am. It comes and it goes. You have to flow with that. That's another reason why the cottagers are important. The cottagers are willing to have a beer on the weekend and not worry if the laundry gets done or not.”

“If you adapt your lifestyle to what solar can give you it will give you quite a lot,” Isaacs said.

Mississagagon Lake considered “at capacity”

Victor Castro, a senior aquatic scientist from the Ministry of Environment, did lakeshore capacity studies on Mississagagon Lake and Blue Lake to determine phosphorous levels. Based on the completed study, Castro says that Mississagagon Lake cannot take any additional phosphorous loading and that any decisions about increasing infrastructure around the lake should not increase the existing phosphorous levels.

The report found that Blue Lake has higher than ideal phosphorous levels and that “careful consideration should be given to further development.”

Phosphorous is a limiting nutrient that controls the growth of aquatic plants and algae. When phosphorous is high it may promote excess algae and aquatic plant growth. A main source of phosphorous in inland lakes comes from septic systems. Other additional sources are storm water runoff, shoreline clearing, agricultural runoff, and fertilizers.