Back to HomeFeature Article - July 2, 2009 North Frontenac CouncilBy Jeff Green

Ompah fire hall still on the radar, department assured

Members of the Ompah fire crew had an opportunity to meet with North Frontenac Council on June 25 to talk about the township’s on-again off-again plans to build a new fire hall in Ompah.

It's been almost three years since Mayor Maguire was re-elected, and during the election campaign Maguire, along with all the other candidates, promised to build a new hall in Ompah during the current term of office.

A piece of land in Ompah has been purchased, and money has been put aside to build a hall in recent budget years, but with the township facing shortfalls, only $25,000 was put in the 2009 budget.

Mayor Ron Maguire outlined for the fire crew members how other infrastructure needs in Ompah are slowing down the project.

A report on ambulance needs in rural Frontenac County was recently presented to Frontenac County Council. One recommendation in particular concerns Maguire, that the base located near Ompah be replaced with a base at Hwy. 509 and Ardoch Road in Central Frontenac.

“As a council we rejected the ambulance report,” said Maguire. “We didn't want to see the North Frontenac station go anywhere. We then came up with the possibility of combining a new fire hall with a new ambulance base, and there could be money available to help build. The ambulance report said it costs $750,000 to build a base. That amount of money would go far if combined with building a fire hall.”

Maguire said that the ambulance situation, and others, “led us to believe we can't make a decision this year, which is why we cut some of the contribution towards the fire hall from our budget. But it remains a priority.”

The only dissenting voice on council came from Councillor Wayne Good, who said, “A new fire hall in Ompah is not a priority for me, I look at all the fire halls since we are one township. I look at the halls in Plevna and Snow Road as much as Ompah. If they can do the job so be it.”

The site of the current fire hall, which has been slowly sinking, also houses a community hall and the Ompah library, and the future of those municipal services will need to be considered as well.

While the chances of having a new hall in place before the next municipal election in 16 months are not great, the fire crews came out of the meeting feeling that council is indeed committed to moving forward.

“Our first question was, 'Is the hall still a priority?” said Deputy Fire Chief Steve Dunham, “and you've answered yes to that.”

Dunham also pointed out that the Ompah crew raises over $20,000 each year for equipment, and that they have been looking at plans for fire halls for a few years and have found some relatively cheap alternatives.

“We've done about everything we can do,” he said.

One of the crew members suggested moving forward by developing plans for a building that includes space for a self-contained ambulance base with separate kitchen and shower facilities and a separate entrance.

“If the ambulance falls through, we stick to the fire hall,” he said.

Council and the crew agreed to keep working on the fire hall, and to keep working together through Fire Chief Steve Riddell. 

North Frontenac to write to Municipal Affairs about County

The dispute between North Frontenac Council and Frontenac County took another turn last week, when North Frontenac Council decided to write a letter to the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) outlining their grievances.

MMAH is the ministry that oversees municipalities in Ontario.

The issue that has galvanized North Frontenac into action is the makeup of county council, but as Mayor Maguire pointed out last week at a meeting of North Frontenac Council, “The list is long and goes back several years.”

Two weeks ago North Frontenac Deputy Mayor Jim Beam resigned from the County Trails committee over his perception that the committee was being bypassed by county staff in the preparation of a county trails master plan. Then representatives from Central Frontenac and Frontenac Islands also resigned.

Beam told council that he “did have a call from the warden, discussing the issues. I told her the wedge that's been driven is almost beyond repair. She said she would put a resolution on the table on county governance, recommending a council composition of eight, with a weighted vote for South Frontenac, at the county meeting on July 22. I'd like to hold off until then.”

Mayor Maguire did not express much optimism that county governance would be resolved on July 22. “I suppose there is always hope,” he said “but I don’t see the warden getting support from the other two mayors, and she always votes with them anyway. If this thing comes forward in July and it fizzles, it’s pretty well dead.”

For Maguire, the governance debacle is the latest in a string of disappointments with the county. “We’ve seen this over long-term care, over the transportation issue, and we may well see it again before the ambulance issue is resolved. When you add governance and the fact that the trails committee has become a fiasco, it’s time we took some action,” he said.

Council passed the following motion: “Be it resolved the Council of the Township of North Frontenac instructs the Mayor and CAO to lodge a formal complaint with the Minister / Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing by a formal letter of complaint with respect to Council’s ongoing frustration with major issues with the County of Frontenac that directly affect the Township of North Frontenac”.

“This way we can get our grievances on file with MMAH as a first step,” said Deputy Mayor Beam. “In the meantime we can proceed with the County in July before taking any further action.”

Kaladar-Barrie agreement – Plans to re-do the Kaladar–Barrie fire agreement hit a snag when Addington Highlands, North Frontenac’s partner for the fire service, revealed they had not put the necessary funds, $3,000, in their 2009 budget.

North Frontenac wants to get it done, and decided to fund the entire cost by dipping into a reserve fund. They will be asking Addington Highlands to reimburse them for the cost in 2010.

Trillium application – The township will apply to the Trillium Foundation for new boards for the Clar-Mill hockey rink.

River Road water – On the advice of their solicitor, the township will erect a metal sign cautioning the public that the water at the spring at the side of River Road, north of the Ardoch Road, has not been treated. 

Back to HomeFeature Article - June 4, 2009 Ompah Fish Hatchery needs new managerBy Linda Rush A small but very dedicated crowd attended a meeting at the Ompah Fish Hatchery on Saturday May 30 to consider the future of this hatchery. Its future is in doubt if a hatchery manager cannot be found. This is a voluntary position, and all of the considerable work that is done at the hatchery is also done by volunteers. Dave Slack, who has been acting as both president and manager of the hatchery, needs to step back from his responsibilities immediately for health reasons. He is planning to remain as president, and his wife Cecilia will remain as secretary and treasurer, but neither can take on the role of manager any longer. Dave will be happy to provide any training needed to a new manager.

The Ompah community is very supportive of the hatchery, and many people lend a hand when needed, or have taken regular responsibility over the years for the feeding of the lake trout hatchlings and the cleaning of the tanks. However someone is needed who will coordinate the volunteers, and who will be available to trouble shoot when things go awry, or when decisions have to be made. This is a major responsibility that not many people are willing to shoulder.

Sheila Bissett did step up to the plate at the meeting and she agreed to act as manager for a two-week period while a concentrated search for someone willing to be manager in the longer term is done. All of the many people who have helped with the hatchery over the years, or who have supported it in other ways, are hoping that this crisis can be solved. If not the Ompah hatchery will need to be closed, and the ministry will remove the hatchlings that are there now to another hatchery. These hatchlings are now used to stock Palmerston, Lucky and Brule lakes with Lake Trout, so anyone who fishes these lakes needs to be concerned as well.

If you have any thoughts or help to offer, call Cecelia Slack at 613-479-0016.

Back to HomeFeature Article - April 2, 2009 north Frontenac CouncilBy Jeff Green

Frontenac County governance report

At their council meeting on March 26 last week, they considered a recommendation by the Armstrong group that the county be overseen by a seven-member council, with a proposal of their own.

They passed a resolution calling for a 13-member council, to be made up of the mayors of the four constituent townships, plus another member of each council to be appointed for a four-year term. In addition to these eight people, the resolution calls for three directly elected members from the southern ward of the county and two from the northern ward.

The proposed wards were a part of the Armstrong report. The southern ward includes Frontenac Islands, South Frontenac, and Hinchinbrooke District of Central Frontenac. The northern ward includes the remaining three districts of Central Frontenac as well as North Frontenac township.

The North Frontenac proposal also calls for the county warden to be elected for four years by a vote of the 13-member council, and the warden must be a member of one of the constituents’ councils.

The proposal has been circulated to the other townships, and Mayor Maguire told the News it has already received an enthusiastic response from current County Warden Janet Gutowski from Central Frontenac.

“She sent back an email saying she liked the proposal and she was glad to have something on the table when the county looks at this,” Maguire told the News.

Any change to the makeup of county council must be approved this year in advance of municipal elections in November of 2010.

Council cuts local levy increase from 16% to 6% after all-day session

North Frontenac Council is set to finalise their 2009 budget at the council meeting next Thursday, April 9, and they will have a few different scenarios to look at.

At their final major budget session last week they cut over $450,000 from the amount the township will have to raise from taxpayers by over $450,000, bringing the increase from $660,000 to just over $200,000.

The cuts came from all departments, including a planned $50,000 contribution to a building fund for a new Ompah fire hall (cut to $25,000) and a reduction in the budget for improvements on River Road by almost $50,000. A planned paving program has been reduced to ditching and widening.

Other cuts include a major reduction in the monies allocated to repairs at the Ompah and Clar-Mill halls, from $135,000 to just $10,000. No one managed to avoid council's attention, however; even a proposed grant to the Cloyne & District Historical Society to support the 150th anniversary celebrations for the Village of Cloyne has been cut in half, from $2,000 to $1,000.

When council meets to finalise their budget next week, they will be looking at the impact of the 2009 budget on council reserve funds. Treasurer Cheryl Robson will provide information on how much money the township has in its various reserve funds, and will be presenting budgetary scenarios that include an increase of $50,000 and $100,000 to the funds.

She will also present a scenario that includes the purchase of a trash compactor, a float trailer, and an operator, which would cost $93,000. The budget currently has devoted $10,000 to renting a compactor on two or three occasions this year.

The impact of the budget increase will vary among ratepayers, because 2008 was an assessment year. As usual waterfront dwellers received larger assessment increases than the average ratepayer, they will be faced with a larger tax increase.

A public meeting on the budget is scheduled for 1:00 at the Clar-Mill Fire Hall mezzanine on April 9.

Ambulance base proposal – In response to another Frontenac County consultant’s report, North Frontenac Council has responded with a proposal that the current ambulance base, located at Lavant Road and Hwy. 509, could be combined with a proposed Ompah fire hall, for which the township has already purchased property in the village of Ompah. 

Colleen Cosens and Japhy Sullivan perform "All Throught the Night" during the penny whistle portion of the show.

Three years ago, the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra was forced to re-schedule their Christmas Concert to January because of an ice storm on the evening when the concert had been scheduled.

To the surprise and delight of Orchestra Director Carolyn Stewart, the afternoon concert on the first weekend of January in 2007 was a resounding success, and ever since then, the Fiddle Orchestra has been holding Christmas in January.

This year, they were joined by their old friends, the Ompah Choir, on Sunday afternoon (January 4) at a packed Maberly Hall.

The concert featured a selection of seasonal fiddle songs, in addition to tunes written by orchestra members Judy Diamond (After Alton) and Martina Field (Armstrong Line). For the second time, the orchestra also performed “The Marvelous Christmas Machine”, a play written by Inie Platenius, with music by Jennifer Bennet.

“The Marvelous Christmas Machine” is a light-hearted cautionary tale about Christmas and community that portrays the author's bias against the much maligned Brussel Sprout. It requires members of the orchestra to stretch their musical repertoire, and to act out their roles using only their voices. They pulled it all off with confidence this time, to the delight of the audience and the play’s authors, who were in attendance.

The Fiddle Orchestra has also been developing their skills at Penny Whistle this year, aided by flutist Anne Archer, who conducted the orchestra for several penny whistle tunes, including a dizzying version of “God Rest You Merry Gentlemen”.

It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since Carolyn Stewart received funding from the Blue Skies Music Festival to establish a fiddle orchestra. At the time, Stewart was teaching fiddle in local schools, and between the school newsletters and notices in the Frontenac News, she managed to pull together a group of novice, intermediate and more advanced fiddlers from local communities, and the orchestra was born. It has seen many changes in personnel, particularly as younger players have grown up and left for schooling, but the membership has remained steady at around 20 players, enough to produce a fully rounded sound, and to improve continually and grow musically, which was again in evidence at this January concert.

After the intermission, the Ompah choir took the stage. The choir is not exclusively an Ompah institution; it has members from nearby Plevna. The choir director is John Inglis, who also provides keyboard accompaniment. The essential feature of the Ompah choir is a love of singing and a love of music. They performed some of their favourite Christmas music, but also a varied selection from the past and present. Marily Seitz, who is a charter member of both the Ompah Choir and the Fiddle Orchestra, performed a memorable song with her husband Stan, before Stan took a turn on an old coal mining song. The choir then returned the stage to finish off the afternoon with their final numbers.

The audience thoroughly enjoyed the varied program.

For 12 hours a day, unless they are called away, two Frontenac County paramedics sit in their vehicle on a parking lot next to the former Palmerston Township garage, which is located near the ghost town of Donaldson, Ontario.

This was the status quo for a long time before Paul Charbonneau took over the Frontenac Paramedic Services in 2006.

“One of my first priorities was to deal with the situation in the north,” Charbonneau has repeatedly told Frontenac County Council.

Yet, five years later, despite the collective efforts of the paramedic services, the county, and the Township of North Frontenac, the ambulance is still parked on that lonely lot far from any services or population centres.

A resolution was passed by county council 15 months ago directing staff to sort out how this project could be completed, but differences over how to share costs have stalled the project thus far.

Central to the disagreement has been a proposal by county staff that, based upon the understanding that the proposed ambulance base/fire hall in Ompah would include a 1,500 square feet ambulance base and a 3,000 square feet fire hall, the county would pay 1/3 of the total construction costs.

The township has balked at this, for two reasons. First, estimated construction costs are higher for ambulance bases ($195 per square foot) than for fire halls ($125 per square foot) and secondly the township does not want to commit to any size for the fire hall because they want some flexibility in costing the project. The county has set $300,000 aside for the project and the township has $395,000 set aside. The Ompah fire crew has also raised money that can be used, but the crew is waiting to see the plans for the hall before they make a commitment.

“It is now May 18, and we have short building season. I think we need to get on with this project now. That's why I propose that we approve today, an RFP [request for proposal] for project management for a design/build combined fire hall ambulance base at a site that has been prepared in Ompah. We will put an upset limit of $300,000 for the county contribution and share the costs on a 50/50 basis until that point,” said North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton.

“It is not only the capital costs that concern the county. It is the ongoing maintenance and upkeep costs and how those will be divided that we need to work out,” said Liz Savill, the Chief Administrative Officer of Frontenac County.

“I agree the building opportunity is short, but we do need to work out the ongoing costs,” said County Warden Gary Davison.

“To me the operating cost split is not a big deal. This is the first time anyone has mentioned it. I would like to see a resolution passed today to get the ball rolling and we can work out the operating cost later. The construction needs to start,” said Councilor John Inglis.

“I hate to hold this thing up,” said Warden Davison, “but I think we need to take the next step first and have Liz contact the CAO of North Frontenac to do that so we can get this underway after our next meeting.

Savill said she would contact North Frontenac CAO Cheryl Robson after she returns from holidays.

Because of travel plans of members of county council, there will be no June meeting. So the progress on the ambulance base/fire hall project will be stalled until at least July 6, which is the date of the next meeting.

Once the Ompah project is approved and built, the county will be committed to relocating the current Parham ambulance base in the vicinity of Sharbot Lake within three to five years.

The county does not have money in reserves to cover that project, which is estimated to cost up to $1 million.

 

Formal approval of North Frontenac budget

A number of people attended the May 24 meeting of North Frontenac Council as Mayor Clayton introduced the 2011 budget estimates for formal approval

The final budget numbers had been settled earlier in the month. The township will be raising $450,000 more this year for their own spending, and will also be collecting $50,000 more in education taxes. For Frontenac County, the amount to be collected in North Frontenac is down by just over $70,000.

All in all, the total tax to be collected from North Frontenac ratepayers is up by 7.2% in 2011.

As Mayor Clayton explained, the increase is due in large part to putting more money into reserve funds that will be used to replace tangible township assets.

“The Municipal Act gives us rules that we must follow,” he said, “and the Public Service Accounting Board [a provincial body] has brought the most change into the operation of our municipality. We have to list all our tangible assets; define a life cycle for them; submit them to the board; and conduct our business with these assets in mind. We have put more money into reserves to reflect the replacement of our assets and stopped some of the spending of the past.”

Aside from increasing reserve funds, the township will be purchasing a new tandem truck this year, and money has been set aside for a new fire hall in Ompah

Official Plan – The township planner, Glenn Tunnock, appeared before council as part of the effort towards updating the township's Official Plan. He highlighted two issues where the will of council has put them at odds with the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs, the body that must approve the plan before it can be adopted.

The first issue is lot size, particularly for waterfront properties. The township minimum is 1 acre, but Tunnock reported that the provincial government has set 1 hectare (2.47 acres) as the standard.

This standard is in place to assure room for a septic system, even on rockier lots. Tunnock's report said that he believes a compromise is possible.

“0.8 hectares (two acres) with a 30 metre natural buffer from any shoreline in the township might be acceptable to the ministry” Tunnock said.

The other issue of concern is housing development on private lanes, which the ministry is not going to allow.

“Infill developments on existing private lanes may be permissible, but extending residential development on private lanes without a plan of condominium in place to ensure the lanes will be maintained adequately is not going to be approved,” Tunnock said.

Council received Tunnock's report for information.

Ompah Library Transitional Plan: Helen Forsey made a presentation to council from the Ompah Library Users Group. In addition to asking the township to pressure the library board to be more accountable to the township and the county and to reinstate the Ompah branch if possible, the users group is also looking at keeping the site of the branch as a public space after the branch closes.

“If the branch does close, we ask that the present Ompah Library site be made into a transitional Community Resource Centre for June to September. Install two township-owned computers along with seating, tables and bookshelves for book swapping and hire a summer student to manage the service. This low cost, short-term solution would allow for exploration of longer term options,” Forsey said.

Mayor Clayton asked the users to come up with the costing for the option they are advocating and said council will consider it at their next meeting.

It was also revealed that MPP Randy Hillier has written to the library board, urging them to reconsider their decision to close the Ompah branch.

Emergency Service Grants – The township has received grants from the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program (JEPP) of the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety. One grant is for $1,716 to help equip the Harlowe Hall as an alternate Emergency Operations Centre, and second is for $10,000 towards a portable emergency generator.

Fire Hall – Councilor John Inglis informed council that the Ompah Fire Hall/Ambulance base project is back on the front burner. He prepared a written proposal to set out a township position regarding how to break down operational costs for the building, which is the sticking point that is supposed to be ironed out before the next county meeting.

“I think we need to push this to county staff so it will get dealt with quickly,” Inglis said.

His proposal was put off to the closed session.

 

Editorial by Jeff Green

A month ago, Claudette Richardson, the Chair of the Library Board, a volunteer position, was asked if the board is currently considering closing any branches.

“Not to my knowledge”, she said.

So even though Ms. Richardson invited a number of library users from Ompah to the April library board meeting, it came as something as a surprise when, in the context of considering the request for the reinstatement of the lost two hours a week for the Ompah branch, as had been requested by the Ompah library users, a motion was made and passed to close the Ompah branch instead.

The closing is the first branch closure since the Frontenac and Kingston libraries amalgamated in 1998.

It marks a formal turning point. Until now, despite two reports that lean heavily towards branch closures, and the documented concerns of some members of the board and staff, the founding organizing principle of the old Frontenac Library has held: the local townships provided the space and paid for the lights, heat and upkeep, and the library provided the materials for borrowing, and staffing for the branches.

All this changed when, on a simple motion from the floor, the library board closed a branch. The library board mediates a partnership between the City of Kingston, Frontenac County and the local townships that all contribute financially to the KFPL, yet neither Frontenac County nor North Frontenac Council were consulted before the branch was closed.

It should not be that simple to close a library branch.

One would think that before closing a branch, a staff report would be presented to the board with specific reasons for the branch to close at this time, but that did not happen.

Instead of closing the branch, the board could have asked staff to prepare a report outlining the savings that a closure will bring, but they did not do that either.

This is not really the way a municipally accountable organization should have acted.

Ultimately, the library board has the right to close the Ompah branch. They had the right to say that the cost of providing service for a population of 500 people is too high for a library system that serves a population of 200,000 people to manage.

But the board did not make this argument to the public or to any of their partners. They simply acted on an impulse that has been in place for years and has become self-justifying over time. They did not demonstrate that the Ompah branch is a burden to the system and how much that burden amounts to, in real dollars.

In other words, they did not show what benefits, if any, will come the decision to close the branch. This leaves them open to the suggestion that they closed the branch simply because they don’t like it, and because they are fed up with hearing from the Ompah library users.

They also sent a message to politicians and library users in other Frontenac townships, who pay the facility costs of the branches, because the closing of the Ompah branch is inexorably tied to the decision by North Frontenac Council to upgrade the Plevna branch two years ago.

The message to the townships that is the when you invest in the branch in one community, the branch in a neighbouring community is doomed.

There are four branches in Central Frontenac and the board has indicated they would like to see a new branch in Sharbot Lake. For years, people from Arden, Mountain Grove and Parham have opposed any plans by Central Frontenac Council to build a new branch in Sharbot Lake, on the grounds that it would cost them their local branch.

The KFPL board has given a form and substance to that fear.

 

Budget finalised

Frontenac County Council staggered to the finish line and approved the 2011 budget at their regular monthly meeting last Wednesday, April 20.

By taking advantage of some uploaded social service costs, the county will decrease the amount it collects from ratepayers by 4.2% in 2011, creating what County Chief Administrator Liz Savill called “tax room” in the budgets of the member townships of the county (see “Taxes up for Central, South Frontenac residents”).

The main budget issue item that was left for council’s consideration on April 20 was the creation of a new clerical staff position at the county office.

The budget originally included two positions, a communications co-ordinator and a clerk for the finance office, but council had made it clear at the previous meeting they were only willing to consider one new position.

Liz Savill said that the workload in her office and in the finance office has increased to the point where existing staff are scrambling to get work done, causing inefficiency. With only one position on the table, Savill said that the position would be shared between finance and communications.

The cost of the position is $48,000 per year, and council decided to leave it in the budget.

North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton brought up the request from Pine Meadow Nursing Home for $25,000 a year for 10 years towards its capital redevelopment program. This item has been brought to county council each year for several years and has been turned down each time, as it was again this time.

Clayton wondered why council was willing to give $54,000 each year to the Kingston General Hospital building fund, but not Pine Meadow. “They are both health care dollars,” he said, “and they both support people from our county. Why one and not the other?”

Council defeated a motion to grant the $25,000.

“I think we need some more time to get information about this,” said Warden Gary Davison. “We are not going forward at this time, but we are not closing the door.”

At the request of Warden Davison, Council decided to transfer $510,000 in gas tax rebate reserves to the townships, a move that did not affect county taxation because the money came from the federal government.

Before the budget vote was taken, Councilor David Jones from Frontenac Islands asked to address council.

“I think it is appropriate that I speak for the good people of the islands. I don’t see anything substantive coming out of these programs. I recognise this is a democratic process, but I see nothing coming from this. I’m going to have to sell this to my constituents. There are programs that have a pronounced bias towards the mainland townships. It is unfortunate that Councilor Doyle cannot be here today because he would have reiterated the same,” Jones said.

The budget passed in a 6-2 vote, with Councilors Jones and Clayton casting the dissenting votes.

County scuttles plans to move northern ambulance base back to Ardoch Road

A proposal that would have seen the Frontenac County Paramedic Service build a stand-alone ambulance base in the vicinity of Highway 509 and Ardoch Road was defeated at county council last week. The proposal would have reversed a directive from the county from last year to build a base at Ompah in conjunction with a new North Frontenac Fire Station.

But the issues that have stopped the Ompah construction from proceeding have not been resolved, leaving the entire project in limbo.

Meanwhile a 12-hour a day ambulance remains parked outside at the Lavant Road garage each day, with the car running all winter in order to keep medicines from freezing.

This is the latest twist in a matter that county council first looked at two years ago when a consultant’s report recommended building a new base at Road 509 and Ardoch Road.

That proposal was strenuously opposed by then North Frontenac Mayor Ron Maguire. In response, Paul Charbonneau, the Emergency Services manager for Frontenac County, brought forward an alternate proposal for a combined ambulance base and fire hall in Ompah. This proposal was endorsed by county council in February of 2010.

Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski opposed the Ompah plan at the time. She had two concerns: firstly, she argued that the decision was essentially a political one that was not supported by information about its impact on response times, and secondly because the Ompah plan also included replacing the existing Parham base with a new one in Sharbot Lake to serve Highway 7.

As has been documented over the last year in the News, the Ompah plan has run into trouble because the county and North Frontenac Township have not been able to agree on a cost-sharing plan for the project.

When North Frontenac brought the matter to the county table on March 16, hoping only to address the cost sharing problem and not the viability of the entire project, county council halted the project pending a staff report, to be prepared for the April meeting,

That report made use of some new mapping of recent call volumes by the County GIS department and a population projection study that has just been completed.

At the conclusion of the report, Paul Charbonneau wrote: “The location analysis … indicate[a] an affirmative view for a new land ambulance station in the vicinity of Ardoch Road and Road 509. Both drive time/distance mapping and total call volume capture are best achieved from this location. A land ambulance station location in the vicinity of Ardoch Road and Road 509 would maximize ambulance coverage within the more densely populated area of the eastern portion of the Township of North Frontenac and the north portion of the Township of Central Frontenac.”

North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton bristled at the idea of moving the base away from Ompah.

“I came here today to try and put the financial model for the Ompah project into line so we can go forward. I can talk very little more about eliminating the project altogether other than to say the people in that district will be terribly disappointed if they don’t get the ambulance base they have been promised,” he said.

John Purdon, from Central Frontenac, said, “I think there are a lot of questions here that we can’t identify today.

Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski did not see any reason to wait.

“I am comfortable with making a decision today,” she said. “We have a duty to today and we have a duty to tomorrow. The correct move is for us to move forward. It is not going to be to the detriment of the citizens of the community in the north to have the service move to the 509/Ardoch Road location. I would like to put a motion on the floor to direct staff to look at options for an ambulance base on Ardoch road.”

That motion was defeated, in a 4-4 tied vote.

County Councilors Inglis, Clayton, Purdon, and Jones voted against it, and County Councilors Gutowski, McDougall and Warden Davison (who carries two votes as Mayor of South Frontenac) voted in favour. Dennis Doyle from the Frontenac Islands was not at the meeting.

When contacted afterwards, Paul Charbonneau said that he would now “re-engage with North Frontenac County staff towards building a joint base in Ompah. The County has $300,000 budgeted for the project.”

Garrison Shores condominium agreement accepted – A number of people who live on the shores of Garrison Lake near Arden stood up and cheered when council approved a land-based condominium agreement for the properties that some of them have owned for over 20 years. They own property in a development called Garrison Shores that was not divided according to planning standards when they bought their lots up to 30 years ago. The condominium agreement has been in the works ever since municipal amalgamation in 1998 and has cost the Garrison Shores property owners hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

 

It was a case of “paranoia is total perception” for a group of Ompah residents who were invited to make a presentation to the Kingston Frontenac Public Library Board last week.

Library Board Chair Claudette Richardson phoned to invite members of the group to attend, saying that the branch would be discussed at the meeting.

“We were not told that branch closure was going to be considered,” said Marily Seitz when interviewed afterwards. “We did know that our request for the return of the two hours a week that were taken away from us would be dealt with, but that is all.”

The branch had traditionally been open six hours a week, but for a couple of years it was open 14 hours a week when the Plevna branch had to be closed because of a mould problem. When a new Plevna branch was opened in 2009, the library board decided to open Plevna 10 hours a week and reduce Ompah all the way back to 4 hours. Ever since then, the Ompah users have been trying to get their two hours back.

Seitz, North Frontenac and Frontenac County Councilor John Inglis, and Ompah resident Janice Arthur, all made presentations to the library board last week in support of their branch.

Last April a request to reinstate the two hours at the Ompah branch was put off for a year. After hearing the delegation from Ompah last week, Library Board Vice-Chair Wilma Kenny delivered a report on the request. She pointed out that the Ompah branch does not meet the minimum standards set by the board for a branch, and that a consultant’s report in 2004 had called for the closure of the branch. She also referred to the branch services master plan that was completed last fall, which pegged the cost per circulated item at the Ompah branch at over $30.

Then, Kenny said, “I'm going to put this out there just to see what board members want to do. I move that the four existing hours at the Ompah branch be moved to Plevna. In other words, I move that the Ompah branch be closed.”

John Purdon, a Frontenac County Council representative on the board, moved that Kenny's motion be deferred until the matter is brought to the attention of Frontenac County Council and North Frontenac Township.

Frontenac County provides the funding for rural service to the library board, and North Frontenac Township is responsible for providing facilities.

After some debate, the motion to defer was defeated, and the motion to close the Ompah branch was then passed in a 5-4 vote.

Later in the week, the library staff announced that the branch would be closing on May 29.

“We have been afraid that this was going to happen ever since that consultant’s report came out in 2004. When our hours were cut to four after the Plevna branch opened, we said it would hurt circulation. Now they say circulation is too low and the branch must be closed. There you have it,” said Marily Seitz.

Seitz also questions the calculations that were used to demonstrate to the board that the Ompah branch was too expensive for the library board to operate.

Appendix C of the library branch master plan pegged the cost of running the branch at $40,000. When that cost is divided by the annual circulation at the branch (1,320 items) it costs the service over $30 for each item taken out at the Ompah branch, which is $13 higher than the cost at the next most expensive branch, which is Plevna, and way higher than the mean in the system, which is $6.72.

However, Marily Seitz pointed out in her presentation last week, that the1,320 circulation figure is wrong.

“In appendix B of the report, the circulation at Ompah is 1,920, but whoever did the calculations transferred the wrong figure over,” she said. With the correct figure, the cost per item at Ompah is about $20, still high but not that much higher than the cost at the other small rural branches.

Members of the Ompah users group also asked where the operating cost of $40,000 came from

When contacted on Monday of this week, Chief Librarian Deborah Dafoe explained.

“There are two kinds of costs allocated to the branches, direct costs and a share of what we call core costs, the cost of books, technology, administration, etc., which is shared by the entire system,” she said.

The direct cost of the Ompah branch includes $6,000 in staffing costs, as well as the cost of phone and Internet service, and delivering materials to the branch.

“The county share of core costs is divided by 12 and allocated to each of the 12 rural branches,” Dafoe said.

This means that larger rural branches, such as Sydenham and even Sharbot Lake, are allocated the same amount of core costs as the Ompah branch, which is only 225 square feet. It also means that closing the Ompah branch will merely result in raising the core costs at the 11 remaining branches but will not lower those costs.

Dafoe confirmed that because the Ompah hours, and staffing costs, are being transferred to Plevna, “The savings that will be realized by closing the branch will not be substantial.”

Deborah Dafoe said she did not know in advance that Wilma Kenny was going to propose a motion to close the Ompah branch at last week's meeting, but, “The impetus behind the motion really was the same impetus behind the branch master plan, which was to bring branches up to a minimal standard of service. The impetus really was to bring the Plevna branch the hours it needs, given that it is a branch that approaches the standards of a satellite branch.”

She reiterated a point that had also been made at the library board meeting, that when North Frontenac Council decided to put a new, improved branch in Plevna, it should have known that the Ompah branch would be closing.

She said that a motion to that effect was presented to the library board in 2008.

That motion outlines what the township agreed to do to get the Plevna branch built, and what the library agreed to do. It also contained a third part - “that the library transfer the combined library collections, staff, and hours from Ompah / Plevna to the new facility.”

The third part of the motion was deferred at the time at the request of the then County Board representative, Jim Vanden Hoek.

“We were clear that we were building a branch to serve the Ompah/Plevna area,” Dafoe said, “we left it to the township to decide where to locate it.

Letters were written to North Frontenac Mayor Maguire about it at the time, according to Dafoe, but there was no response.

It's unclear whether Jim Vanden Hoek ever brought the deferred motion to the attention of County Council, or whether it was brought forward at North Frontenac Council. Members of the Ompah users group were not aware of its existence.

“We have made it clear to the library board on many occasions over three years that people in Ompah do not travel to Plevna,” said Marily Seitz. “Our travel pattern is to Perth.” Seitz said she is has enquired into the cost of purchasing a library card for the Perth library now that the Ompah branch of her own county’s library is closing.

Editorial by Jeff Green

It seemed like it was only a matter of time before Frontenac County Emergency Services Manager Paul Charbonneau and the Council of North Frontenac Township would end up at loggerheads over the location of a new ambulance base to serve people in the northern part of Frontenac County.

Lennox and Addington County has recently confirmed they will be maintaining a 24-hour ambulance based in Northbrook and a 24-hour ambulance based in Denbigh. Until recently, Charbonneau had been advising that the best option for a new Frontenac County base is the intersection of Ardoch Road and Hwy. 509 in Central Frontenac. His position was supported by a consultant’s report and statistical information about call locations, volumes, and average response times.

North Frontenac rejected Charbonneau’s position, and called his statistics into doubt. When the matter was floated at Frontenac County Council in the fall, it appeared that the council did not want to pick a fight with North Frontenac over the matter.

Now, Paul Charbonneau has come up with what appears to be a rather elegant solution to the problem, although the people in Parham and Kingston City Council may have something to say about it.

In a report that is being presented to county council this week, Charbonneau is proposing to build not one, but two new bases, one in Sharbot Lake at a cost of $750,000, and one Ompah which will be co-located with a new Ompah fire hall, and will cost $300,000. This solution would bring response times to within the 30-minute framework, the standard for rural ambulance service, throughout the county.

With a new base coming in Sydenham, moving the current ambulance base in Parham about 15 minutes to the north becomes a viable option, and politicians will be happy because there will be a shiny new base in each of the townships.

That’s something to run for re-election on.

But there are political and financial complications.

While overall response times would be improved throughout the county under this plan, the residents in the Parham and Godfrey regions are not going to be pleased because response times to them will increase. Frontenac County has also spent money upgrading the Parham base over the past few years, and they will be abandoning a perfectly adequate facility.

All of these factors may cause Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski to face some flak if she supports this plan, which is never a good thing for a mayor who is running for re-election.

Then there is the cost, and that is where the City of Kingston comes in. Ratepayers from the City of Kingston pay for 81% of the ambulance budget.

The new plan would cost over $1.05 million to bring about, more than $800,000 of which would be levied to the City of Kingston.

The original consultant’s report allocated $750,000 to a new northern base at the Ardoch Road. The new plan, allocating that amount to a new base in Sharbot Lake, is really only $300,000 more expensive, the amount necessary to co-locate a new base in Ompah with a new fire department there.

The ratepayers from the City of Kingston would pay $240,000 towards that and Frontenac County ratepayers the other $60,000.

If Frontenac County Council gets behind this plan, it will all have to be raised at the Rural Urban Liaison Committee, (RULAC) which is made up of politicians from the City of Kingston and Frontenac County.

Even though this solution is not included in the consultant’s report into ambulance service, there is some pretty good supporting evidence that it would be a good operational plan for Frontenac County, and although it involves substantial capital spending, it would have no immediate impact on the operational side of the ambulance budget.

RULAC has already approved a new 24-hour ambulance for the Sydenham base that is being built this year.

This northern solution calls for a 24-hour ambulance in Sharbot Lake and a 12-hour ambulance in Ompah, the same amount of service, and cost, as the current system.