| Jul 10, 2014


Mississippi Bridge project gets the go ahead

A tender was granted in the amount of $2,167,000 to H.R. Doornekamp construction for the replacement of the one-lane bridge over the Mississippi River on Road 509 with a two-lane structure. The total cost of the project will be a bit higher, at $2,238,000. A grant from the provincial and federal governments will cover the bulk of the cost, $2 million to be precise. The rest of the cost is being covered by federal gas tax grants from the last few years, which have been held in a reserve fund, so the project will not have an impact on municipal taxation in 2015.

Funding for the project has been sought from provincial/federal infrastructure programs on at least two previous occasions, without success. Ratepayers may be thankful for those rejections, however, because the funding programs at the time covered only 2/3 of the cost of projects, whereas this one will be covering almost 90% of the total cost.

There will be minimal disruption during the construction, because the new bridge is being built just to the west of the existing bridge. Once it is completed the road will be rerouted and then the existing bridge will be removed.

Playground equipment approved, with some dissent.

In their 2014 budget, Council approved an expenditure of just over $44,000 towards an accessible playground structure at a site in Plevna that is also being contemplated for a war memorial and other public uses. The playground structure project was contingent on receiving a $25,000 grant from the Hydro One Power Play fund; however a few weeks ago Hydro One informed the township that they were only going to come through with $10,000 towards the project.

Cory Klatt, manager of community development, asked Council what he should tell Hydro One, leaving them with the option of finding another $15,000 for the project or turning down the $10,000 grant. According to CAO Cheryl Robson, there is enough money in the parkland reserve fund for ward 2 to cover the extra costs.

This brought up the question of how much use playground structures get in the Internet age.

“Will this be used?” asked Deputy Mayor Fred Perry.

“If you build something people will use it,” replied Councilor Gerry Martin.

“My concern is that the playground structure in Northbrook is never used,” replied Perry.

“There is equipment in Cloyne that nobody uses,” said Councilor Wayne Good.

“I understand what people are saying, but I think it is a gamble we should take, a leap of faith,” said Councilor John Inglis.

“We are lacking a lot of things, a doctor, a dentist, a bank, but let's start off with something,” said Councilor Lonnie Watkins.

In the end, the expenditure was approved 5-2, with Perry and Good being the dissenting voters.

Shabomeka beach privy

The township is looking at installing outhouses at five public locations in 2015, including three boat launches, the Cloyne Park, and at a proposed new public use site in Plevna. In response to a request from the Shabomeka Lake Association, Council decided to rent a privy for the Shabomeka boat launch this summer.

A number of councilors pointed out that the number of tourist-related boat traffic on township lakes was very high in late June and over the Canada Day weekend.

“These are not seasonal residents, they are families coming to fish our lakes, a response to the Fish TV episodes about North Frontenac, I think” said Mayor Bud Clayton.

“I agree, these are not local boats,” said Gerry Martin.

OPP costs may be less than first thought – Clayton

In his role as Frontenac County Warden, Mayor Clayton has learned that changes are being proposed to the OPP billing system that as of this spring was slated to raise North Frontenac's cost from just over $200,000 a year to over $1 million a year.

“They are now looking at a 60/40 split between the fixed asset costs and calls for service,” said Clayton, “as compared to a 73/23 split. And the talk is it will be phased in over four years as well.”

The split is important to North Frontenac because the fixed asset charge is based on the number of dwellings, including seasonal dwellings, which account for most of the dwellings in North Frontenac. Service calls in North Frontenac are historically very low. Council asked staff to prepare a report on the impact of this new scenario on the bill that North Frontenac will likely receive for 2015.

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