Public meeting to be rescheduled and advertised again

Craig Bakay | Sep 20, 2017

South Frontenac Council decided to re-advertise a public meeting regarding a request to sever a lot on Itinerary Lake in response to an Inverary Lake Association letter at its regular meeting Tuesday night in Sydenham. The proposed severance would create a new non-waterfront lot on Round Lake Road (15 acres) with the retained portion becoming a smaller lakefront lot (37.8 acres with 434 metres water frontage).

Planner Lindsay Mills said the resulting rezoning application could be supported from a planning perspective and both the health unit and conservation authority had no objections. However, in a letter dated Sept. 14, the lake association expressed concerns that proper procedure had not been followed. Mills admitted that the notice placed on the property had the wrong date for the public meeting on it but “when I was notified of this, it was corrected.” Members of the lake association in attendance said this error had not given them sufficient time to prepare for the public meeting. “I wonder if we could postpone this public meeting to give the lake association time to respond,” said Coun. Ross Sutherland. CAO Wayne Orr said that the public meeting would have to be adjourned and re-advertised.

Council passed a resolution to that effect. Mills agreed to respond in writing to the lake association’s concerns. Budget time again It’s not quite budget time but the jockeying for economic positions appears to have begun in earnest. Treasurer Louise Fragnito was at Council asking for direction and to remind Council of the long-range budget plans implemented in 2015. If Council were to strictly adhere to those plans, she said, then taxes would have to increase by 2.2 per cent in order to maintain capital reserves of $10,445,421. If the tax increase were 2.0 per cent (as Council has expressed interest in maintaining), then capital reserves would be at $7,796,901.

“I hate budget time,” said Mayor Ron Vandewal. “Anyways you know I’m going to argue it to death.” From the list of long-term projects Fragnito presented, Vandewal singled out a separate intersections fund (“just a way of increasing the roads budget”), a reserve for new fire halls (“putting aside $1.5 million for a new fire hall every three years is fantasy land”) and a million-dollar reserve for a new library in Verona. Coun. John McDougall said the original plan for libraries was to build a small one in Verona and a new small one in Sydenham. But a grant became available to build a big one in Sydenham and that’s what happened. Still, being a councilor representing Portland District, he wasn’t necessarily opposed to a new library for Verona.

Coun. Ross Sutherland thought there was too much being put away for roads. “There’s no reason roads should increase by five per cent when inflation is two per cent,” he said. “You’ve given us plenty to think about,” said CAO Wayne Orr. “So we’re going to work with a two per cent increase and $10 million in reserves. COW’s staying home next week Council officially cancelled next week’s (Sept. 26) Committee of the Whole meeting as there are no reports forthcoming from senior management in accordance with the unofficial policy adopted at last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting.