North Frontenac Council Feb 4/13

Jeff Green | Feb 07, 2013

Snow Road Hall repairs reinstated

The phone lines were buzzing last week in Snow Road and Mississippi when residents found out about a decision that North Frontenac Council has made at a budget meeting a couple of weeks earlier.

After receiving word that a grant application to cover 1/3 of the cost of bringing the kitchens at all of their township halls up to a new safety standard had been successful, Council decided to fore-go over $8,000 of the grant money, thus saving the $17,000 township cost for the upgrade of the Snow Road Hall. At the same time they voted to accept the grant money for the other four halls and commit to upgrading them (Plevna, Harlowe, Ompah, and Cloyne).

After an emergency community meeting on Friday, (February 1), Lori Ryder and Sheila Kittle attended Monday's regular North Frontenac Council meeting to try to convince the council to change their minds.

In making the decision about the Snow Road Hall, council took into account that the Snow Road Snowmobile Club is a suitable location for community events and dinners. However, Lori Ryder pointed out that “The Snow Road Snowmobile Club is a private entity and their rental rates are unaffordable for the Snow Road community. Also, the club gives priority use to snowmobilers during the winter season, and is in fact open 24/7 for such purpose."

Sheila Kittle also pointed out that a number of uses are planned for the Snow Road Hall once the flooring is changed later this year, a project that is being financed through fund-raised dollars.

“The Snow Road upgrade is also the least expensive and the hall is the least expensive to operate and is in excellent repair,” said Sheila Kittle.

Councilor John Inglis was the first to respond.

“When we voted on this it was in ignorance of some of the details. I would be in a position of changing my vote. I think perhaps we made a mistake in the vote,” he said.

In the end Council voted to reverse their decision and will accept the grant money. The township share of the cost will come from parkland reserve funds that come from the sale of road allowances, etc. so it will not impact the 2013 budget.

“It is not true that this is not going to be paid for by taxpayers, however,” said Mayor Clayton. “All the money comes, one way or another, from taxpayers.”

Although the township will now be upgrading all of their halls, they also passed a motion declaring all of their halls, save the Barrie Hall, surplus in seven years, paving the way for the potential closure at that time.

“All these halls are very costly to operate. That's one of the reasons we started looking at costs. It is sort of a wake up call, we have five and they are very costly to run. We may have to have one central one instead, which would be a lot cheaper to operate in the long run,” said Deputy Mayor Fred Perry.

Cell towers: Elizabeth Newell appeared before Council on behalf of Bell Mobility to talk about plans for three cell towers in the central and eastern parts of the township, and a possible fourth tower. She asked that council speedily send letters of concurrence for the proposed towers, and also asked that a section of Mountain Road be maintained on a year-round basis by the township in order to allow access to a planned tower on the Tooley property. Bell is planning to introduce service to customers in those regions within a year.

No reversal on Ice Water Rescue: Councilor Inglis submitted an administrative report asking council to reconsider its decision to cease offering ice water rescue out of the Ompah fire station (the only station in the township that had been offering the service). He did convince Councilor Lonnie Watkins to change his vote, but that was all and the vote for reconsideration was defeated.

Funding requests: Don Amos, Executive Director of Northern Frontenac Community Services, outlined the youth programming offered by the agency in North Frontenac. He requested $5,400 in funding support for 2013.

The township also received a letter from Land O'Lakes Community Services requesting funding support to the tune of $1 for every resident of Barrie ward (about $1,200) to help fund seniors' programming.

Both requests were referred to budget deliberations.

Council also decided to spend $900 on a 2013 Recreation Guide, to be produced by the Frontenac News.

Recycling numbers – good and bad: Public Works Manager Jim Phillips presented a report on recycling in the township, based on the criteria developed by Waste Diversion Ontario (WDO). While township residents have achieved a 55% recycling rate when volume of material is considered – i.e. the landfills receive 55 bags of recycling for every 45 bags of waste - the WDO makes their calculations based on weight, and on that basis they determine that North Frontenac recycles only 25% of material.

“They use weight and since we don't have scales they use estimates that may not have anything to do with the reality in our sites,” said Phillips, “but that is how it is”

WDO pays a rebate to the township to cover recycling efforts, this year that comes to almost $100,000. However the recycling program costs $250,000 to operate, leaving ratepayers on the hook for $150,000

NF wants all gas tax dollars to flow to the townships: In a letter to Frontenac County and the Frontenac townships, North Frontenac requests that all the federal gas tax rebate money that flows to Frontenac County be sent directly to the lower tier townships to help them with their infrastructure needs, since Frontenac County does not have responsibility for local infrastructure. In recent years, Frontenac County has financed sustainability initiatives using gas tax rebate funds, while transferring a portion to the townships for road and bridge repairs.