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Jeff Green | Nov 10, 2005

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Computers stolen from Denbigh Library:Addington Highlands Council report

by Jeff Green

Addington Highlands Deputy Reeve Lorraine Berger brought the sad news to Council last week that it could cost the township $3,000 to replace computers that were stolen from the Denbigh Library. The computers had been purchased using grant money to set up a Community Access Portal (CAP) site at the library. They have been used to provide free internet access to members of the public as part of a strategy to bring technology to rural areas. CAP sites exist in many of the rural communities in Lennox and Addington and Frontenac Counties.

The township does not have money in their budget to purchase the computers this year, so it is unlikely they will be replaced until sometime in 2006.

Clerk Jack Pauhl said that the township has a deductible on its insurance of $2,500, so making an insurance claim is not seen as a good idea.

The computers that were stolen are somewhat out of the ordinary, and this could potentially help to locate them. They were made by Jamie Grand of Grand Computers (now located in Tweed) and have blue side walls on the Central Processing Unit. A laptop computer is being used at the library now.

Bill Brown was in the gallery at this week’s Council meeting when the issue was discussed, and he suggested purchasing laptop instead of desktop computers to replace the stolen ones, so the librarian could take them home when the library is not open.

Reeve Ken Hook suggested putting a picture of the computers in newspaper ads and on posters so anyone who may have purchased them or seen them in someone else’s possession would know they were stolen from the Library. Council approved doing so.

Cracks in the walls – Roads Superintendent Royce Rosenblath raised the question of paying for the new sand/salt containment unit, which is completed and has been filled with a salt sand mixture. Payment for the units is due upon completion. The township has received an engineer’s report on the project, but the report was prepared on the day the cement was poured for the building’s walls, September 19th. However, one month later, when the building was filled with material, cracks developed, some of them 1/8 inch in diameter, in the building’s walls.

“Right now we hold all of the marbles, we haven’t paid anything. Once we pay the money, we won’t be able to say anything, really,” said Reeve Hook.

The township has decided to request a new engineer’s report that gives assurance that these cracks are not signs of weakness in the building before paying the invoice.

Hazardous waste company rescinds offer - Councillor Eythel Grant reported that a company out of Belleville, Quinte Waste Solutions, that had offered to set up a hazardous waste day for Addington Highlands and North Frontenac has now said they don’t want to do so.

“They asked if we’ve ever had such a thing as a hazardous waste day, and when I said we hadn’t, they decided that the number of people that are likely to bring material would overrun their capabilities, so they said they won’t do it at all,” Grant told Council.

Eythel Grant will be attending a meeting in Renfrew County, where a municipally-run hazardous waste service exists, to see if Addington Highlands residents could make use of that service.

Teranet mapping - Addington Highlands has purchased Teranet digital parcel mapping, which is necessary for the development of the township’s comprehensive zoning bylaw, at a cost of $1,600 per year for five years. Teranet will provide updates on a regular basis.

Wind Power presentation upcoming – Mike Benson, of the Conestoga Rovers Engineering firm, had been scheduled to attend this meeting to present a report on the Kaladar Waste Site monitoring program, but he did not attend. Instead, he told the Reeve that he would like to make presentations sometime during the week of Nov. 21 about the Kaladar Site and a proposal his company is developing for Wind Power Generation in Addington Highlands. A meeting is being set up for November 24 or 25.

Nine thousand sign for cell phones - The cell phone petitions that have been circulated in AH and North Frontenac since the early summer have been collected, and 9,000 people have signed. The petitions and letters of support will be presented to the two major cell phone companies in the hopes that one of them will respond by putting in a new tower to cover the large areas in both townships that don’t have cell phone service.