North Frontenac Council - July 25/13

Jeff Green | Jul 25, 2013

Catch 22

In addition to the east-west divide in North Frontenac politics, there is a lesser known north-south divide. Up at the top of the township, accessible only by ATV, snowmobile or by travelling by road up to Renfrew County and back, there are a few lost souls. They pay taxes to North Frontenac but receive limited services through arrangements North Frontenac makes with the Township of Greater Madawaska in Renfrew County.

The only time that issues from those lakes seem to come to the attention of North Frontenac Township is when developers at one of the lakes, Norcan Lake, want to put in new subdivisions.

Now there is a new issue, the plight of the residents of Frank’s Park, an island-based trailer park on Centennial Lake.

The island is located on Crown Land and was managed by Frank Stubinsky under a land use permit from the Ministry of Natural Resources, until he passed away and the permit was extended to his daughter Diane Moran.

Access to the island is via a causeway. During his 25 years as park manager, Frank Stubinsky granted a number of the 30 trailer owners in the park permission to put add-on rooms on the trailers they had parked on their designated park sites. MNR officials visited the park on occasion, and were aware of the existence of the add-ons. There is no hydro in the park, and no septic systems, only a privy run by the park management.

In 2010 George Gorrie, North Frontenac’s building inspector, arrived on the island after receiving a complaint from a property owner on Norcan Lake about the location of the trailers.

Aside from the setback issue, the fact that home-made add-on rooms had been built by 15 of the 30 trailer owners in the park, in contravention of a township bylaw, came to Gorrie’s attention. In 2011 Diane Moran informed the 15 owners that the add-on rooms needed to be removed by the end of the season.

The affected campers formed an association and hired a lawyer, who filed a motion in court to delay the order until they could consider their legal options. This led the township to launch a counter suit. A few weeks ago, the nine campers who still have add-on rooms (the other six had removed theirs) agreed to a settlement of the legal issues.

Tim Lawlor, a spokesman for the group, told North Frontenac Council last week that the trailer owners settled because they could no longer afford to carry on the legal proceedings. They had also been prohibited from approaching council while the proceedings were ongoing.

“So, we signed an agreement saying we will remove our add-ons, and that three of our members whose trailers are located within 49 feet of the water will move them back. But now that we are able to come here, we are appealing to Council to back down on the order,” said Stew Arnott, one of the affected trailer owners.

Arnott pointed out that everything he had ever done on his site, including building an add-on in 1999, had been approved by the Land Use Permit owner, who represented the MNR, and that MNR officials never said there was a problem on his site.

“I also know that there are add-ons in other parks in North Frontenac, and the township charges tax on them, so we are not asking for anything that others don’t already have,” Arnott said.

He referred to website ads for two parks which have trailers and add-ons for sale. (The News later confirmed these ads, which clearly include add-on rooms).

In order for the trailers to be moved back from the water to satisfy setback requirements, a number of large trees will have to be removed, which the applicants don’t want to do, and also may have trouble doing because the property is still Crown Land.

North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton said Council will have to look at the case in detail.

“We will get back to you with a response,” Clayton said, “It may not be the response you want from us but we will get back to you.”

We contacted township CAO Cheryl Robson about the case, and she said a report on some of the issues at play will come to Council on August 12. She pointed out that the land use permit includes a clause that puts the township's bylaws in play in the park.

Clause 3 of the Land Use Permit says, in part; "Any land improvements or alterations whatsoever, must be approved by a MNR official and any other applicable agencies or authorities.”

Robson also pointed out that the township has asked the MNR to help sort out the situation but because of budget cuts the MNR has no personnel available to work on the file.

She also pointed out that the township bylaw concerning add-on rooms says that they are permitted only if they are pre-manufactured and removable, which is the case in the add-on rooms in the website ads that Stew Arnott referred to, but not the rooms at Frank’s Park.

Public talks, council listens

A public meeting was held in early June as Council sought input over a number of decisions they were at the point of making.

At the meeting, which was attended by 75 people, Council got an earful about the proposal to cut the number of council members from seven to five; a proposal to build a multi-use complex to include an administrative office and a large public meeting place, and perhaps a library and other cultural or recreational features; and a related proposal to declare most of the existing township halls surplus in seven years' time.

In all cases the public opposed the stated direction of council, and at their meeting this week Council followed the public’s advice and backed down on all three.

The first matter under discussion was the size and make-up of Council. Council was considering cutting down to one councillor representing each of the three wards and electing a mayor and deputy mayor at large. Currently there are two councilors elected from each ward and the mayor is elected at large. At the meeting the public expressed the fear that the new proposal could lead to council being dominated by one region or one group of councilors.

“After hearing from the public, I’ve changed my thinking on this and I am going to vote against the change,” said Councilor Gerry Martin, echoing the sentiments of the rest of Council. A motion to move forward with the change was easily defeated.

On the related issues of declaring the existing halls as surplus and building a central municipal complex, Councilor Lonnie Watkins said, “We’ve spent too much money fixing up the halls to go ahead and close them and build something that no one wants.”

The debate quickly shifted away from a multi-use complex and towards the idea of building only a new township office and council chamber.

“We need a new admin building, that’s all,” said Councilor Wayne Good.

“I think the idea is to build something that can be added on to,” said Mayor Bud Clayton. “The existing building needs $250,000 in upgrades just to keep it going. We need to decide whether we want to do that or build something new. We have been putting money away for this, but we should stop doing that unless we are going to formulate a plan for how we are gong to use that money.”

CAO Cheryl Robson said there is $285,000 set aside in a building fund.

“I think it would be poor management to put more money in that building. What does that building say about what we are all about? It’s basically Hillbilly Heaven, as far as I’m concerned,” said Gerry Martin.

Council decided to enter into a study of their space needs for administration and the viability and cost of making the existing building sufficient for that purpose, as well as costing out a new building.

Mayor to approach community groups about future management of halls

Mayor Clayton asked for Council’s permission to set up meetings with local committees about the future of the Harlowe, Snow Road, Clarendon and Miller, and Ompah halls.

“Obviously the municipality running the halls hasn't really worked for the municipality,” said Clayton. “Task force after task force has looked at this with no solution. It’s time we talked with the user groups about this; it’s time we move forward.”

Clayton proposed to bring a local council member in each district as well as Cory Klatt, the township staff member who deals most directly with halls, to the meetings. Although members of Council expressed scepticism that the groups were in a position to pay all the costs of maintaining the halls, they agreed to let Clayton try.