Something you don’t see at a municipal council meeting very often is a resident making a delegation and going to bat for a neighbour.

But at Addington Highlands regular Council meeting this week in Flinton, Amos Shiner did just that.

Shiner took exception to the way Larry Knox has been treated with respect to the enforcement of the yard clean-up bylaw.

Knox has been instructed to clean up his Hwy. 41 property. Shiner said a bylaw enforcement officer visited Knox March 1 and gave him until April 17 to comply.

“Larry has been in the hospital for lung surgery and I’m here asking for an extension,” Shiner said.

Shiner said allegations that nothing had been done were untrue as Knox had “taken a pickup load to the dump.”

Shiner also said there were extenuating circumstances in that some of the metal to be removed was still frozen in the ground.

“I’ve talked to many people who are not happy with the way this was done,” Shiner said.

Shiner said the incident has raised other concerns for him and he plans to do something about them.

“Our bylaw does not comply with the Charter of Rights (and Freedoms),” he said. “One person (the bylaw enforcement officer) has the authority to enter anyone’s property and act as judge without appeal.

“We feel bullied by this bylaw so we’re taking petitions (and) you’re going to see a lot of me until this bylaw is changed.”

Shiner also said he has issues with other municipal statutes including the Official Plan.

Council thanked Shiner for his presentation.

Addington Highlands Council is interested in a joint Councils meeting with North Frontenac, just not on the timetable North proposed.

Responding to a request from North at its regular meeting Monday in Flinton, several councillors reported that they were unavailable for the suggested dates of the weeks of March 20 or March 27. Add to that Addington Highlands Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed has already booked vacation time during that period and would also be unavailable.

On the agenda for said meeting would be a discussion of the Kaladar-Barrie Fire Department 2017 budget with Chief Casey Cuddy.

Council instructed staff to suggest April 5 or 7 as alternate dates for the meeting.

Reeve Henry Hogg even suggested a location for the meeting — Barrie Hall in Cloyne

“I can walk to there,” Hogg said.

Billa flint remembered
Flinton resident Dale Smart was at Council requesting a plaque be put on her house commemorating one of its earlier residents — Billa Flint, for whom the village was named (originally Flint’s Mills).

“He was also our first senator,” Smart said. “The town was laid out in 1860 and I believe the house was built in 1885.

“It’s the most historic place in town at the moment.”

Coun. Tony Fritsch said: “we don’t have anything in place (for things like erecting plaques.)”

“It hasn’t come up,” said Reeve Henry Hogg.

Fritsch suggested contacting the historical society to see if they had any policies or information on heritage properties.

“We’ll look into the for you,” said Hogg.

Tipping fee delay
Following the recommendation of Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed, changes to tipping fees at Addington Highlands waste sites will go into effect April 15 as opposed to April 1.

“This will give attendants two more weeks to hand out notices,” she said.

The Flinton Gold Mine

It is too early to predict either a gold rush or an environmental disaster for the village of Flinton, but Jimmy Sun, President and legal counsel for the Union Glory Gold group of companies, is bullish on the old Addington Mine property.

His company purchased both the surface and subsurface rights to the property, and an adjacent property from Imperial Minerals some years ago, and in a letter to Addington Highlands township staff from earlier this month, he talked about the exploratory activity his company has been carrying out at the property, which is located off Flinton Road (Concession 4, Lot 24, Kaladar).

“We have in the last few years carried out some preliminary work. Last spring some drilling turned up encouraging data and we have since decided to conduct more drilling in an effort to better understand the potential of the property. This drilling should be completed by the end of November,” he said in his letter.

Sun also pointed out that the property was a producing gold mine in the 1930’s. He invited the township to contact him for more information.

Patricia Gray, from the township office, contacted Mr. Sun after meeting with a consultant who was doing a socio-economic study for Union Glory Gold as part of their exploration activities. In addition to contacting Mr. Sun, Gray also spoke with the regional geologist with the Ministry of Mines and Northern Development who said the company is doing some diamond drilling and also doing studies on streams and water in the vicinity of the potential mine site.

“The geologist advised me that the company is complying with requirements at this time,” she said in a report to Council.

Gray also reported that, again according to the geologist, any mining activity is a number of years away and that public consultation will be required if the project proceeds to that stage.

Union Glory Gold has another project in Eastern Ontario that is further along the process of development. It is located near the town of Tudor in the township of Tudor and Cashel, located south and east of Bancroft in Hastings County. The company estimates the Tudor property contains up to $2 billion in gold deposits, according to information that is posted on their website.

Union Glory Gold is based in Toronto and Hong Kong. It lists the Tudor gold project, an iron ore project in Shefferville, Quebec, and the Addington project, on its website.

At their meeting in Denbigh on Monday (November 21) Addington Highlands Council received Patricia Gray’s report on the Flinton gold mine project for information purposes.

(Other items from Addington Highlands Council)

Free rental for NAEC formal dances

Council agreed to provide the Flinton Recreation Centre free of charge for the Christmas and Spring Formals put on by the North Addington Education Centre Student Council. Joel Hasler and Dave Kerr, staff advisers to the student council, wrote to the township making the request because with decreasing enrollment the increasing cost of DJ’s, the students are having trouble breaking even on the dances.

New CBO/facilities manager/bylaw officer position created

As part of an organisational restructuring process, the township will be hiring a full time Chief Building Official who will also have responsibility for bylaw enforcement and will manage township buildings. Until now it has fallen to members of council to oversee buildings such as the former Denbigh schoolhouse and the Land O’Lakes Family Health Team.

Taylor named volunteer of the year, Guardian Pharmacy as Outsanding Business

Northbrook’s Robert Taylor, the driving force behind the Land O’Lakes County Music Hall of Fame this past year, has been involved in community activities for many years. Tobia’s Guardian Pharmacy is a core business in Northbook, along with the Bank of Montreal and Foodland stores. They will both be honoured at the township Christmas Dinner next month.

Gordon Wood is a familiar figure in Flinton. Partly that's because he's been there longer than just about anyone else. Also, whenever the weather is nice, even if it is a bit chilly, he can be seen rolling around the village on his motorised scooter. He enjoys the fresh air, and stops to talk to neighbours once in a while. Then he returns to the home that he built with his late wife Wilma in 1947, where they raised five children.

Gordon just turned 92 last week, and although he remains pretty sharp, he is “finally showing his age” according to his daughter Audrey, who lives in Cloyne and checks in on him every day. Audrey puts food together for him to microwave, deals with his medical needs, and makes sure he is ok. Gordon also receives a pension and some help, including medical devices, a new scooter every four years, and other benefits from Veteran's Services.

Although he has lived in the Flinton area most of his life, got married there and raised five children, there was a gap.

Gordon spent five years with the Canadian military.

He walked into the recruitment office in Kingston when he was only 17, and tried to sign up.

“They told me I was too young,” he recalled earlier this week, “so I came back the next day and they signed me up then.”

What followed for Private Gordon Wood is a classic tale from WW2, which has been told before in The Frontenac News and is captured on film in the archives of the Pioneer Museum in Cloyne.

On D-Day (June 6, 1944) he was still only 19, and that fact, coupled with the fact that over 72 years have passed since then, makes him a member of a dwindling club. It is hard to get an accurate count, but Veterans Affairs estimated that as of March of 2014, about 76,000 Canadian WW2 veterans remained alive, and at that time their average age was 91. Based on sheer demographics, that number is certainly under 30,000 now, and is likely much lower. As far as veterans of the Juno Beach invasion are concerned, the number is certainly dwindling. In an article in the National Post that was published 18 months ago in April of 2015, the number was estimated to be 1,000.

At the 72nd commemorative service for the Juno beach invasion, which was held on June 6 of” this year, there were 9 veterans of invasion in attendance, and only 1 Canadian.

J.L Granatastein, a popular Canadian historian, published a book on the D-Day invasion. He described the soldiers who stormed the beaches: “We also need to understand the great courage of all those young men who faced the enemy's fire and, conquering their understandable fear, stayed to fight and to support their friends and honor their country. A band of brothers? Without a doubt. Our greatest generation? Absolutely."

This puts Gordon into some pretty impressive company:

Here is an excerpt from the Frontenac News article from 2005, based on how Gordon described the invasion when he was 81.

After training for two years at Camp Borden Gordon was finally sent to England in the early spring of 1944. Three months later, Private Gordon Wood, by then an infantryman with the Regina Rifles of Saskatchewan (which he had joined while in England), took part in the landing at Juno Beach on June 6, 1944.

“We had a rough landing. We came out of the landing craft in water up to our chests and had to run to shore with our rifles held up in the air.”

Gordon’s landing craft was among those in the middle of the pack of craft that came into shore that morning. “By the time we hit the water, it was red with blood,” he recalls. He doesn’t remember being particularly frightened, however. “I was too young to know I wasn’t invincible,” he says, “even though we lost a pile of men on that beach.”

After hitting land, Gordon and the other soldiers who had survived pressed forward, shooting as they went. “The first 24 hours were probably the most dangerous, but then things did settle down,” he said.

Gordon Wood spent the next nine months fighting through France, Belgium and Holland. He became a Lance Corporal and a Section Leader.

“We would advance for days and then stop, and then we would take a rest for three or four days when the supplies arrived, and let another bunch push ahead. Then it was our turn again,” he remembers.

Photo Left: Gordon Wood (top right) with his platoon mates enjoying the sound of music coming from a portable phonograph they picked up along the way

At one point Wood and three other men were captured. Since the war was in its dying days and the German army was in a state of disarray, the men bade their time until one night when there didn’t seem to be anyone guarding them, and then they made a run for it. They kept down, hiding in ditches and wooded areas, and eventually rejoined their comrades.

Again, Gordon does not recall being particularly frightened during the time when he was a prisoner, even though he says that “we knew that if we didn’t escape the Germans would have eventually kill us, but you don’t think about dying when you’re 20 years old.”

After the War ended, Lance Corporal Wood stayed on in Europe for a year as a member of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, spending some of that time as a guard in a prison camp just inside of Germany. In 1946, Gordon returned to Canada and was discharged.

It turns out that the minutes after Gordon landed at Juno Beach were not the most dangerous moments that he faced. Those came even earlier. In an account of the invasion that I came upon this week in research for this article, it turns out that of the boats carrying members of Gordon's company, D Company (nicknamed Dog Company) of the 3rd Battalion, two struck land mines about 250 yards from the beach, killing many, including the company commander and the signals commander. Only 49 D company soldiers even made it to the water alive. Fortunately for them, a soldier in A company, the first to land, lieutenant Bill Greyson, had found a safe spot after making it to the beach, and gauging the timing and direction of rifle fire, had tossed a grenade into a major German “emplacement” and the German soldiers abandoned it and were soon taken prisoner. All told, the 3rd battalion took 80 prisoners, with the 49 surviving D company members taking 20 on their own.

Since 2005 time has taken a toll on Gordon. His wife Wilma (Bryden), a school teacher who he met shortly after returning from the war at a supper and dance at the former Flinton Hall, passed away 9 years ago after a 60 year marriage, and he still feels the loss. He doesn't hear or see that well anymore, and struggles with Diabetes as he has for the past 30 years, but he still lives on his own and with the help of family and friends he lives a happy, independent life.

He said this week that he never has talked a lot about the war after he came back, and “just sort of got on with life”. He still thinks about the day of the invasion, however, on Remembrance Day, and on June 6 each year when he participates in the parade that the Tamworth Legion puts on. He said that he also remembers that day in quiet moments when he is alone in his chair, in the house the he built with his wife, late in the afternoons as the sun is going down.

The Northbrook Legion branch 328 organised a well attended ceremony of remembrance last Sunday,(November 6) under bright blue skies and crisp autumn temperatures in Finton. Local cadets led by Tim Trickey stood watch as a parade of veterans and community elders laid wreathes in memory of venerable institutions and family members who have passed away. Among the many who attended the ceremony, young and old, the most cherished was 92 year of Gordon Wood, a D-Day veteran who still lives in Flinton. The ceremony was followed by a lunch, courtesy of branch 38, at the nearby Raise the Roof Ministry building

Sale of Road Allowance puts an end to years of debate

It is not often that the ghost of the founder of Flinton, the legendary Senator and business man Billa Flint, is brought up in the context of a decision by a contemporary council. But that is what happened on Monday (November 7) in the context of a decision to sell a 32 by 40 foot parcel of land behind the former United Church in Flinton to the Orser family.

The Orsers purchased the church 5 years ago and have been struggling ever since to obtain the necessary approvals to put in a septic system behind the building. The solution that came to Council for final approval on Monday was for them to sell part of the road allowance to the adjacent Skootamatta River to the Orsers.

Three delegations came forward to comment on the proposed sale. One, James Wood, merely sought clarification. Another, June Phillips and Caol Lessard from the Addington Highlands Public Library, which has a branch next door to the former church, objected to the sale on the grounds that it will impinge on their ability to run outdoor children programs next to the library. They noted as well, in their written submission, that “the neighbour looking to purchase the property has caused many access issues. If he is able to purchase any part of the property we feel these problems will grow.”

The most vociferous opponent to the proposal was Flinton resident Bruce Hasler. He asked council if they considered themselves wiser than all of those who have served on council “for the last 157 years since the road allowance was established by Bella Flint and surveyed by John Emerson in 1859.”

He said, “I would think that you would have to have the ego of Trump to put yourselves above all those smart people and stop and sell this property after all this time.”

He added that “any councilor who votes for this bylaw is guilty of ignoring the rights of taxpayers, and should resign.”

Councilors Tony Fritsch, Kirby Thompson, and Deputy Reeve Helen Yanch all briefly engaged in back and forth comments with Hasler, saying they looked at all of the issues before coming to the decision and that the right of way will still be in place, though it will be narrowed for a 40 foot stretch.

Later in the meeting, after the opponents and the Orser family had left the meeting, the sale came up for approval. Councilor's Thompson and Fritsch both said that they would like to see a low fence constructed to mark off the edge of the road allowance and the new boundary of the Orser property.

Council agreed that the township should pay for the fence because it is for the townships benefit that it is being constructed. The Orsers need only agree to its construction in order for the sale to be approved at the next meeting.

A discussion about whether it was possible to prohibit the Orsers from parking in front of the library fizzled when council realised that their only option was to prohibit all parking in that location, which would not help anyone.

“The Orsers should just be encouraged to park on their own property,” said Helen Yanch.

Police report

Napanee Detachment Commander Pat Finnegan made his quarterly visit to council, outlining the activities of the OPP in Addington Highlands over the summer months.

He paid particular attention to a letter that the township forwarded to his office that came from Robert Taylor, who operates a fruit and vegetable stand in front of his property on Hwy. 41 in Northbrook. In his letter, Taylor said that traffic travels at high speed in that part of Northbrook, and dangerous driving is rampant. He said that the police presence in Northbrook has gone down in recent years and that had made the problem worse.

Finnegan said that he appreciates the letter, and thanked Council for forwarding it, and added that “we responded by taking a closer look at that is going on there and at our activities. We need to determine, in these cases, if there is major problem or just the perception of a major problem.”

While Finnegan said it is true that many northbound summer drivers start speeding up in Northbrook well before they reach the 80 km zone, there has been no spike in incidents in that location.

He also said that the detachment is less likely to park a police car with a radar gun in a fixed location these days “because it has been shown to be ineffective. People slow down when they see the police and when they get out of sight they just speed up again.”

Instead, he said they often use unmarked cars with mobile radar and other techniques to patrol the roadways.

All told, 700 motor vehicle charges have been laid in Addington Highlands this year, 588 between June 1 and September 30th. Most of those have been provincial offences such as speeding, seat belt infractions, cell phone use by drivers, etc. That figure includes patrols along Hwy. 7 in the the township as well as on Hwy. 41 and other arterial and back roads.

Finnegan also said that the OPP is investigating vandalism at the former Northbrook fire hall. It was broken into, covered in graffiti, some of it anti-police, and some furniture that was stored in the building was destroyed. Finnegan indicated that he expects the investigation will turn up the culprits eventually.

The hall has since been emptied and the doors secured.

Kaladar Comunity Hall

Council received a letter from Penny Hinchey, the secretary of the Kaladar Community Club, regarding the future of the Kaladar hall. The letter outlined the difficulty the club as encountered keeping the hall in operation, which has recently become more acute when the Land O'Lakes Tourist Association stopped renting office space in the hall.

“So my question to you is, rather than shutting the hall down, which would be a huge loss to the community, is it possible for the township to basically take over the hall?” Hinchey said in her letter.

Hinchey added that she believes this has been done with the Cloyne, Harlowe and Denbigh Halls, and concluded her letter by saying, “hoping to hear back from you before we have to take some drastic decisions.”

Reeve Hogg said first that the Cloyne and Harlowe Halls are not in the township.

The township does, however, maintain the Flinton Recreation Centre, the Family Health Team Building in Northbrook and both the Denbigh Hall and the Denbigh Recreation Centre.

“I think we should ask them for a financial statement to see what we are looking at here,” said Councilor Tony Fritsch.

Denbigh Recreation Centre

Council received the engineering plans for renovating the kitchen at the Denbigh Recreation Centre but will not take on the project unless a grant can be found to help pay the cost.

Flinton Recreation Centre.

A $24,000 contract was awarded to Hook's for the supply and installation of new flooring in the Flinton Recreation Centre. The top floor will be done in 2016 and the bottom in early 2017 in order to spread the cost over two budget years.

An end to 55 years of service by one family to Addington Highlands Township

In 1986 Royce Rosenblath took over from his father Joe as the “road boss” in the former township of Denbigh, Abinger and Ashby after his father had served in the role for 26 years. 29 years later, now serving under the title of the Roads and Waste Management Supervisor in the amalgamated township of Addington Highlands, he is leaving at the end of the November.

In a letter he delivered to Council on Monday (February 7), he said “I would like to thank Reeve Hogg and the Council, both present and past, and the ratepayers of Addington Highlands for the opportunity to work with them for the past 29+ years ... I have enjoyed my employment and will miss working with my coworkers when my retirement day comes. Please accept this letter as my official notice of retirement, My last day at Addington Highlands will be November 30, 2016.”

Councilor Tony Fritsch said to Rosenblath that “there is no doubt that there will be a hole to fill after you leave. No one has the same feel for the history of the township, why decisions were made, what works and does not work.”

No reason was given for Rosenblath's decision to retire, although in his letter he noted that he would like to thank Tanya [also a Rosenblath – his cousin by marriage] who has been acting as the Roads and Waste Manager for the past 3+ months.

He may have had more to say at an in camera meeting which followed the regular meeting of Council.

Addington Highlands has also been undergoing an operational review this year, and one of its recommendations was the establishment of a Chief Administrative Officer to oversee all township operations. Currently it is one of a few townships where senior managers, such as the roads and waste manager, fire chief, and chief building official, all report directly to council.

Two special meetings have been set for next week to discuss that review.

At the end of his letter Rosenblath said he will be “glad to provide whatever assistance I can to provide for a smooth transition.”

Township to remove gates

Royce Rosenblath, the Roads and Waste Management supervisor for Addington Highlands, spoke to Council on Monday about the ongoing issue of property owners putting locked gates up across public access points on their properties.

“One time I did know what to do and now I don't,” Rosenblath said, explaining that with hunting season fast approaching there could be access issues and complaints to the township.

“The land is locked if they can't get into it,” Councilor Helen Yanch said.

Rosenblath explained that it's pretty common, especially when a property changes ownership, for people to gate up roads that allow access to their property.

“I don't think we can have land that's locked if there are taxpayers back there,” Councilor Kirby Thompson said.

“We can do what we've always done,” Rosenblath said. “Pull the gates down and leave them at the shed and let these people come to council. I've done it lots of times.”

Council voted to send letters out asking property owners to remove gates from specific locations they are aware of, or else the township would be taking them down before hunting season begins in two weeks.

Council approves small solar project for Flinton

Rob Hitchcock, a representative from Abundant Solar Energy Inc., made a request to Council on Monday for support for a 3-acre, 250kW solar project located just off Flinton Road.

“Have you done soil tests yet for that site?” Councilor Bill Cox asked. “That's just sand there.”

Hitchcock explained that they are able to construct the projects in sandy locations and that it wasn't a concern for this particular project.

Councilor Cox made a motion to approve the project and it was passed.

Clement Street drainage

Royce Rosenblath explained two possible solutions to Council for alleviating drainage issues on Clement Street in Flinton.

One option was to build a swale, or ditch, near the problem area in hopes that it would encourage runoff of the water. Rosenblath was concerned that this might solve the issue in one area but make it worse elsewhere.

The second option, albeit more expensive one, would be to install a storm sewer, which Rosenblath told Council could cost up to $900,000 per km.

Council opted to pay closer attention to the problem area and to do more preventative maintenance, such as snowplowing, in hopes of alleviating the problem as much as possible.

Rob Hitchcock, from Abundant Solar, brought mapping which showed that the true location of a proposed solar project near Flinton is in a dormant field at the rear of Lot 20, Con. 5, Flinton.

The previous presentation had shown the project location in the front of the lot, in a field that is in agricultural production, within close proximity to three houses on the same lot and three more across the road.

The new location is in a dormant field and is much easier to block using existing tree cover. It is also located further from neighbouring property owners.

Councilor Bill Cox, who lives on the same lot, had expressed concerns about the initial site. He was concerned about how the view from his own and his neighbours’ homes would be affected by a project that was to be located about 150 metres from his front door. He asked for a deferral of a motion of municipal support for the project when it was presented to Council earlier in the month.

At that time he was looking for more information about plans for berms and tree cover.

“This location does not impact any of the neighbours in the same way, and when I talked to the neighbour who has leased the land for the project, he said the project was always set for the site at the back of the lot. It was a mistake by the people who were preparing the presentation that led to the confusion,” said Cox when contacted this week.

When the motion of support was brought back to the floor at the Addington Council meeting on Monday night (September 19) in Denbigh, it was passed unanimously.

There was talk before the vote about conflict of interest. However, since Bill Cox has no financial interest in the project, and courts have upheld the position of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation that Green Energy projects do not impact property values, Cox did not declare a conflict and voted in favour of the motion.

The project will now go the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) “Feed in Tariff” procurement bidding process. Approval for all projects under this round of procurement will be announced early in 2017.

Organisational review to be the subject of special meeting

A special meeting will be held in Flinton next Monday, September 26 at 10 am to discuss implementation of the Organisational Review that was presented to Council earlier this year.

The review was the subject of a letter from Jim Laginski, a representative from IUOE (Independent Union of Operating Engineers) Local 793. The IUOE represents workers in Addington Highlands, including Roads Superintendent Rosenblath. The union is concerned about the creation of a new tier of management, which has been proposed in the review. The managers would not be part of the union.

Reeve Hogg said, in an interview after this week's meeting, that he is concerned that the changes called for in the review will result in higher administration costs because of new management positions being created.

“I want to see a costing before I can support this,” he said.

Denbigh waste site

The township has been attempting get approval from the Ministry of the Environment to re-open the Denbigh waste site. This process has been ongoing for a number of years.

This week the township received a letter from the MoE, which said that the township is required to place clean fill at certain locations at the site. Council is hopeful that once this is done, the MoE will re-open the site, perhaps over the next six months.

Solar Proposal for Addington Highlands

Rob Hitchcock, a representative from Abundant Solar Energy, made a presentation to Council requesting a support resolution for two small separate solar projects his company is hoping to build in the area.

Council passed a resolution to support one of the projects, which is proposed along Highway 7, but are waiting on more information for the second project before they would approve it.

The second project that is in question is on three to five acres and Abundant would be leasing the land.

As required by the Independent Electricity Systems Operators (IESO), the corporation that awards the solar contracts, if a site is within eyes' view of a road or building, the contractor is obligated to make sure it is landscaped accordingly, to hide the panels from the eye.

“I certainly do have concerns about it,” said Councilor Bill Cox, whose house is located across the road from the proposed site. “You put up a six-foot fence and I have a two-storey house. Before I could support something like that I'd certainly like to know more about how it's going to be landscaped.”

Hitchcock told Council that he would provide them with a digital mockup of how the landscaping could look at the proposed site for their next meeting.

Township's assets relatively new

Petr Sizow and Alison Fath-York, representatives from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH), made a presentation to Council on Wednesday regarding Addington Highlands and their Asset Management Plan (AMP).

Fath-York explained that the province takes data collected from municipalities and uses it to populate their Financial Information Return (FIR), a data website. This information is available to councils and the public and she said that Addington Highlands Council should be aware that it exists.

“Our ministry is in the process of modernizing the website,” she said about the FIR site, which includes financial data from 2000-2015. The data is used by the province to observe trends across all of the municipalities.

Even though Addington Highlands' infrastructure is relatively new overall, Sizow and Fath-York both spoke about the importance of annually investing in infrastructure to balance spending and to avoid having to drastically raise taxes.

“You are stewards of your infrastructure,” Fath-York said. “You have a responsibility to that infrastructure.”

Of Addington Highlands' tangible capital assets, 71.5% is in their roads and 13.7% is in their fire halls and emergency structures.