| Sep 13, 2017


Emily Allan has two dogs, a six-year-old beagle and a new puppy. She also has a petition with about 350 signatures on it and a strong desire for South Frontenac Township to build a dog park. Allan was at South Frontenac’s Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday night with a proposal. She’s done some homework and found a place — in Harrowsmith’s Centennial Park between the small ball diamond and the Cataraqui Trail. The Township would have to buy some land for the park but she’s even begun planning for fundraisers to pay for the fencing. About the only thing she hasn’t figured out is how big the park should be, but that can come later. “Centennial Park has the space and the parking,” she said. “Most of the activities at the park — ball, soccer, tennis — are summer activities. “A dog park can be used all year long and it could be accessed from the Cat Trail.” Council seemed quite supportive of the idea.

“I’d be happy to have staff look into how we would go about this,” said Coun. Ross Sutherland. “There are lots of dog parks around the country so we’d have plenty of models to look at. “We do have leash laws but people often let their dogs loose on the trails so maybe that might stop some of that.” Coun. Mark Schjerning said he was against the idea at first but has since changed his mind. “Originally I thought it was a ridiculous idea but I’ve changed my mind,” he said. “People do go to Kingston just to take their dogs to a park so I would support this just to keep people in the Township.” “I’m thinking about costs but I know my son takes his dog to one in Red Deer,” said Mayor Ron Vandewal. “We’ll direct staff to bring back a report. “But there are no guarantees.” Symon moving on After less than half a year on the job, Manager of Development Services Forbes Symon is moving on to a similar position for the Town of Perth (Director of development and emergency services). When asked if the move represented a bigger job and raise, Symon said no, the move is more for personal reasons. “I’ve had a 45-minute to an hour commute to work ever since 1990 and this new job represents a five-minute drive,” he said. “It’s a quality of life thing.” He said he wasn’t looking for a new job and this opportunity came up as “a bit of a surprise” but seemed right for him.

“I’ve been very happy here and with my short experience there are very good people here and plenty of opportunity but Perth is my community.” CAO Wayne Orr said Symon’s position has been advertised this week and the candidate search will close in October. “We’re hopeful we will have a strong selection,” Orr said. Caring for Carrying Place Coun. Ron Sleeth took exception to Public Works Manager Mark Segsworth’s proposed plan for roads and bridges saying vehemently that he would not support any five-year plan that didn’t have upgrades for Carrying Place Road on it. Mayor Ron Vandewal countered that the plan would obviously come up for discussion at budget time but went on at length about how Council had to consider the township as a whole and while he had no problem with individual councilors advocating for their district, each councilor only had one vote of nine. “This report is here to begin the discussion, not end it,” said Segsworth. “(But) the needs out there are significantly greater than the funds available.”

COW endangered species? As South Frontenac has been looking at its procedural bylaw, the future of Committee of the Whole (COW) meetings has become quite the topic for debate. One proposal has COW meetings to be abolished entirely but if the vote had been held at Tuesday night’s meeting, it likely wouldn’t have passed. Coun. Mark Schjerning has been the strongest advocate of doing away with COW meetings, arguing that it would save about $10,000 in councilors’ remuneration and that often there is very little on the agenda. He said issues previously discussed at COW meetings could be addressed at one of the three standing committees of Council (Public Services, Corporate Services and Development Services). “It would also allow staff more time to prepare reports for Council meetings,” Schjerning said. Coun. John McDougall had several objections though, ranging from less compensation for council members making it harder to find good candidates, to reduced delays for public concerns to be discussed. “I’m looking at the status quo,” McDougall said. “In other words, you don’t like anything about the proposal,” said Mayor Ron Vandewal. “I like lunch,” said McDougall. For his part, Vandewal said he mistakenly thought the proposal was to reduce the number of COW meetings to one a month from the current two.

“We could still schedule two meetings a month but be stricter about canceling meetings with small agendas,” he said. Coun. Ross Sutherland said he saw “two fatal flaws” with the proposal — reduced public input and it would give councilors on the standing committees more power over what actually comes to Council. Coun. Brad Barbeau said the proposal “might slow the wheels of government.” Coun. Pat Barr and Ron Sleeth didn’t seem keen on the idea but were willing to give it a try for a couple of months. Frontenac Park A proposal by Frontenac Provincial Park staff to acquire a number of Townshipowned, unopened road allowances that abut the park boundaries met with lukewarm reception. Planner Lindsay Mills said that the Township should only sell road allowances that aren’t in the Township’s future plans and that if the Park still wants the land, they would have to expropriate those lands. In either event, Mills said the Township should receive fair market value for the land. However, Mills said that if the Park wants lands that aren’t within the Park’s boundaries, then they may not be able to expropriate them. “What do they want the lands for?” said Coun. Ross Sutherland. “Maybe it’s been a burr under their saddle for some time,” said Mayor Ron Vandewal. “This came up before in 2013 but went nowhere.”

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