North Frontenac Council - Aug 11/14

Jeff Green | Aug 14, 2014

Ompah fire hall renovations to cost $300,000

If all goes well, North Frontenac Council will not have to concern itself with the future of the Ompah fire hall/ community centre any more.

A proposal put forward to council this week by Steve Sunderland, the voluntary co-ordinator of the project, included three options for council's consideration.

Council accepted option 3, the most complete and most expensive, at a cost of $292,225. The option includes two additions to the original proposal: in-floor heating in the fire hall and a relocated washroom and shower unit for the firefighters.

The decision by council to add the two new elements came about after a flurry of correspondence between the Ompah Community Association (OCA) and the township in late July and early August.

Ultimately the OCA sent a letter to the township last week pledging a $50,000 donation to the project on the condition that the two new elements be included. The rest of the money will come from a number of reserve funds, chiefly the Ompah fire hall reserve fund.

When asked by the mayor, Fire Chief Steve Riddell said he was not sure that the in-floor heating was necessary, but his was the only dissenting voice on council.

The most vocal critic of expanding the project beyond the $180,000 approved in this year's budget, Councilor Wayne Good, from Barrie ward, was not in attendance, nor was Deputy Mayor Fred Perry, who had also argued for restraint. Good and Perry have gone so far as to question the need for the fire hall, given that there are fire halls in Plevna, 15 km to the west, and Snow Road, 8 km to the east.

The project is already underway, following a suggestion earlier this spring by Steve Sunderland that it be split into numerous sub-projects, which are being completed one at a time. This way of proceeding came about when the lowest of the tender bids for the entire project was $364,000.

However that was only the latest chapter in the saga of the Ompah fire hall, which has been at the council table for eight years or more. The township even purchased land across the road from the existing fire hall/community hall/library building, intending to build a brand new combined fire hall/ambulance base in conjunction with Frontenac County. Cost overruns related to the site and projected costs as well as an inability to agree on cost-sharing led to the demise of that project, which left the township on the hook for the cost of purchasing and re-mediating the site, which once housed a gas station.

After the latest series of letters between council, staff, Ompah residents and firefighters, which led to the proposal that has finally been approved by council, Mayor Clayton said in a letter to Rose Boivin of the Ompah Community Association, “No one will be happier to see this project come to a healthy conclusion than I.”

Other items from Council

Buckshot Lake cell tower lighting

For the third time, Buckshot Lake residents Dave Swanson and Marie Whiting came to Council about a recently installed Bell Canada cell tower on the shores of the lake. They are concerned about the lights on the tower, particular a red LED light that shines down on the lake.

“I have been talking to officials at Bell,” Swanson said, “and in order to follow the process to change the orientation of that light, the township first has to send a letter to Transport Canada, pointing out the problem. We can draft the letter and submit it to the township.”

Norcan Lake dogs Council again

The ill-fated Canonto Lodge subdivision on Norcan Lake, in the north-eastern edge of the township, was back on the council agenda this week. Earlier this summer, council decided to allocate the $30,000 remaining from what had been a $60,000 payment to them from developer David Hill. The money was to be paid back to Hill once all the conditions noted in a site plan agreement between Hill and the township were met. One of those is a laneway linking a number of lot owners' properties with a water access lot they all hold in common.

This laneway has never been constructed, and has been mired in controversy, leading a group of angry lot owners to seek redress from Council.

The latest problem arose when an engineer's report, commissioned by the township's public works manager, Jim Phillips, revealed that a stacked boulder retaining wall at the edge of the proposed lane could fail. The engineer recommended building a new wall and Phillips brought that recommendation to council. Phillips also recommended meeting with the affected landowners to discuss the matter.

A couple of Canonto subdivision land holders were present at the meeting. They wanted to address Council on the matter but had not registered as a delegation beforehand.

One of them expressed frustration at the further delay and added cost to the construction. “I don't know why the township didn't go right after David Hill for this. I don't know why we end up being treated like the enemy when all we want to do is make sure we have what we paid for in the first place so we can go ahead and build and pay taxes to them,” one of them said outside the meeting.

Recycling ratios remain steady

North Frontenac residents continue to recycle more bags of waste than they send "over the hill' into township landfill. Statistics for the 2nd quarter of 2014 show a consistent rate of just under 60% each month throughout the system, although the numbers vary somewhat from waste site to waste site.

The 2014 totals are almost 5% better than they were a year earlier, when the rate was about 55%.