North Frontenac Council - Feb. 15/11

Jeff Green | Feb 17, 2011

North Frontenac Council has had two meetings within the past week. The first was their regular meeting on Thursday, February 10, and they held a special budget meeting on Monday, the 14th.

The first item on the agenda on Feb. 10 was the presentation of an award to Marg Axford, marking her years as a major force behind the Cloyne and District Historical Society and the Pioneer Museum.

Axford received the Ontario Heritage Trust Community Recognition Certificate and Achievement Pin from the Province of Ontario. The township had submitted Axford's name for the award, and Mayor Bud Clayton presented it to her.

Ragged Chutes again – Ragged Chutes Road residents Murray and Beverly Elliott brought a summary of the history of maintenance on a 0.8 kilometre stretch of the Ragged Chutes Road, which is classed by the township as an “unmaintained township road.” The Mitchells were unsuccessful when they asked the previous council to resume minimal maintenance on their stretch of road. The maintenance had ceased in 2003, before they moved into their house.

“We would like to see gravelling on the road when necessary, and grading at least once a year,” said Beverly Mitchell.

“There are a number of these issues facing council,” said Mayor Bud Clayton, “and I'd like to speak to each of them at a special meeting, and it will be before spring.”

Mayor wants councilors to have more input – Mayor Clayton has proposed that individual councilors be able to submit reports to council in much the same way that staff does, thus adding a further opportunity for members of council to influence the political direction of the township. Currently, members of council can bring a notice of motion to a meeting of council, and that motion will be considered at the following meeting. Now if a member of council sends a written or oral report to the clerk one week before a meeting, that report and any attending recommendations for action can be included in the agenda of that meeting.

“The intention is to give members of council a more active role in setting the agenda for the township,” said Bud Clayton.

The proposal will be brought to the next meeting for formal ratification.

Algonquin Land Claim – Councilor John Inglis, who is the Frontenac County representative to the Algonquin Land Claim Process, reported that a meeting of the municipal advisory committee to the land claim took place last week and that the goal of completing a memorandum of understanding in 2011 remains in place. Inglis said he cannot reveal details from the meeting, but the public record about the land claim shows that it will include transfers of parcels of land currently under Crown jurisdiction to identified Algonquin communities, in addition to a sum of money for economic development. Among these communities are the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, which is based in Sharbot Lake, and the Snimikobe First Nation, which includes a number of families from Frontenac County. After a memorandum of understanding is ratified, it generally takes five years for a land claim to be completed. One of the stated goals of the federal and provincial negotiators to the land claim is to secure Algonquin Park under provincial jurisdiction.

Official Plan finalized – After a two-year long process, North Frontenac has submitted their updated Official Plan to the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for ratification. The plan has been sent to the ministry a couple of times already, and each time the ministry came back with requests for altered wording.

One contentious issue has been a ministry demand that new building lots are no longer to be permitted on extensions of private lanes or on new private lanes.

The only options for land developers will be plans of subdivision or plans of condominium, both of which are costly planning processes for developers. They also require that roads be constructed to a township standard and be taken over by the township roads department.

Council had argued with ministry officials that this will severely limit the potential for development on both waterfront and other lots within the township and make it harder for the township’s tax assessment base to grow, “but in the end they made it clear they were not going to bend on this and we had no choice but to accept it,” said township clerk/planning co-ordinator Brenda DeFosse.

Notebooks in councilors’ future – Council received a report from Information Technology technician Evan Sepa that outlined options for the township to move away from paper in the way it communicates with members of council. These included the possibility of purchasing Blackberry Playbooks, Apple I-pads or Notebook computers. At a price of $400, the Notebook option was recommended by Sepa; however, he also advised that only if every member of council were willing to use the machines and receive their council packages and other communications electronically, either through the Internet or a thumb drive, would it be a worthwhile expenditure.

Everyone at the meeting agreed they would use the machines if they were purchased, and that the matter should be considered at budget time. Two councilors were not in attendance at the time. Councilor Gerry Martin did not attend the meeting, and Lonnie Watkins had left early for a doctor's appointment.

Cost Sharing Elusive over Ompah fire station/ambulance base

Paul Charbonneau, chief of the Frontenac Land Ambulance Service, and Marion Vanbruinessen, Frontenac County treasurer, came to a meeting of North Frontenac Council on Monday (February 14) to bring the new council up to speed on where the planning process stands for the construction of an ambulance base/fire hall in Ompah.

The county put out a request for proposal (RFP) for a project manager for the construction last fall, which was answered by two applicants. The RFP estimated the project’s cost at $800,000, to be funded 2/3 by the township and 1/3 by the county.

But since those cost estimates entail North Frontenac paying over $500,000 for their share of construction costs, and the township only has $300,000 put aside for the project, the project has stalled.

“We did not actually go through with the interview process with the two applicants,” said Marion Vanbruinessen.

Although the township and the county pledged to work together on the project last February, they have differed on construction costs ever since.

Paul Charbonneau told North Frontenac Council that the recently completed Sydenham ambulance base cost $195 per square foot to build. The ambulance portion of the Ompah base is slated at 1,500 square feet and the county has the necessary $300,000 in place for their portion of the costs.

Members of North Frontenac Council do not think that the fire hall portion of the building has to be that expensive per square foot.

“As far as I’m concerned, the county portion can have all the bells and whistles the county wants, but the fire hall is just a basic building, a shell with bays for equipment, a training room, and some showers. There is no reason for it to cost anywhere near $200 per square foot,” said Councilor Lonnie Watkins.

North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton said that the most recent fire hall that North Frontenac built, which is located between Ardoch and Ompah, “came in at $77 a square foot; others have come in at $120, so we are questioning the $200 a square foot costing.”

Councilor John Inglis asked Charbonneau whether a new RFP could be issued that “divides the project into part A, the ambulance base at one price and part B, the fire hall, at a lower price to reflect the different cost estimates.”

Charbonneau agreed that the fire hall construction costs could be lower than ambulance base construction costs. “We do have some numbers on fire hall construction that are in the neighbourhood of $128 a square foot,” he said. “But my answer to the part A, part B idea is that it is not in the direction I have received thus far. I would have to receive new direction before proceeding in that way.”

When contacted by the News on Tuesday, Charbonneau explained that while the County Council decision to proceed with the project from February of last year did not set out specifics about how the cost sharing would be calculated, he is following a protocol that was worked out afterwards between County Chief Administrator Liz Savill and senior staff from North Frontenac. That protocol stipulated that North Frontenac would pay for 2/3 of construction costs and Frontenac County the other 1/3 regardless of the total cost of the project.

“Is there anything else you would like to tell us?” Bud Clayton asked as Paul Charbonneau and Marion Vanbruinessen were leaving the meeting, “other than to get off our butts and get on with it?”

“I was just saying to Marion as we were driving here this morning that when I started with the county in 2004, my first priority was to get a northern ambulance base in place and get our ambulance off the parking lot at the township yard in Lavant. And as we sit here today seven years later the ambulance is idling in that parking lot, burning fuel. So, yes, we would like to get this done,” replied Charbonneau.

After Charbonneau left, council considered some of their options.

“The firefighters currently have a building that is 1550 square feet. We are proposing 3,800, but we have room to move down to 3,000 if we want,” said Councilor John Inglis.

“The issue is price,” said Mayor Bud Clayton, “we know what the firefighters want but we are responsible to the entire township not just one group of firefighters.”

Inglis then said that he thought the township could find another $100,000 in the 2011 budget so they can invest $400,000 into the project.

“I’m with John,” said Clayton, “our upset price is $400,000.”

“I think you and I, Bud, should argue for a change in the cost sharing agreement at county council,” said Inglis.

Clayton and Inglis are the North Frontenac Township representatives to Frontenac County Council.

The investment of another $100,000 in the Ompah Fire Hall is not a done deal for North Frontenac Council, however.

Deputy Mayor Fred Perry said that the hall could be downsized even more, to well below 3,000 square feet, “if we consider realigning our equipment throughout all of our fire halls. We need to look at the skill base we have, and realize that the firefighters from all the halls are called to each fire, and we don’t actually save that many buildings. We mostly contain fires from spreading.”

Councilor Wayne Good said, “in my opinion, and I have expressed this before to the firefighters themselves, we don’t really need a fire station in Ompah. We have Plevna and Snow Road. So I can’t see putting any more than another $50,000 into it. At the most.”

In the end council did not decide how much money they are willing to commit to the project.

They did pass a motion saying that their county representatives “shall have a discussion with county council with respect to the cost sharing of this project.”