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Jeff Green | Aug 03, 2006

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SouthFrontenac Council

by Wilma Kenny

Bedford Bag Tags

Pat Feenstra of Bob’s Lake Co-op came to Council to protest the $20 waste disposal fee levied against each of the trailers in the Co-op. She had originally asked for a refund for the 300 bag tags the group had been issued, on the grounds that they seldom if ever took garbage to the Bedford landfills. However, once it became clear that 34 trailers were located on the five large lots that make up the Co-op, all the trailer owners were charged the same fee as cottages in Bedford . CAO Gord Burns admitted that the Co-op was a unique situation: it has been in existence for many years, and while the land is owned communally, each of the trailers is privately owned. Council’s general consensus, as expressed strongly by Councillor Stowe, was that $20 a year was an extremely cheap landfill fee, much lower than cottagers in other parts of the township were paying.

Acrimonious and noisy debate arose over the question of lowering the fee for additional bag tags in Bedford [to allow homeowners to put out more than 2 bags of garbage a week], on the grounds that there was no garbage pick-up service in that district. Underlying this seemed to be the lack of an arrangement with small businesses in Bedford , which would allow them to dispose of a household-equivalent amount of waste. The motion to change the additional bag tag fee was defeated, but one of the onlookers scolded Council for squabbling between districts and failing to work together as an amalgamated group.

Trailer Troubles

Petrus Van Vliet, a resident of Belgium , asked permission to store a trailer on his Bob’s Lake lot, so he could use it two weeks a year, while visiting his elderly parents in Kingston . He had purchased the property in November sight unseen: it had had a trailer which the former owner removed. Mr Van Vliet had bought another trailer, only to receive a letter from the township asking him to remove it, because the Township by-laws do not permit the use or storage of a trailer on vacant land. CAO Burns pointed out that this had been a controversial by-law, because a number of people had had to remove trailers from vacant properties. He said that making an exception as requested would be unfair to many other trailer owners.

Sydenham Lake Septic Re-inspection Program

The KFL&A Public Health Department is in the process of inventorying all the sewage disposal systems on Sydenham Lake which are over 10 years old, ranking them in terms of risk presented. Their mid-project report showed that 101 inspections have been completed out of a targeted 231. Of these, only 8 have been classified as high risk, and will be further investigated by the Health Unit. Inspections will continue throughout the summer.