CF Council weighs in on Property Standards and Strategic Plan

Chief Building Inspector Jeremy Neven made a presentation to council regarding the property standards by-law currently in place in the township. While Hinchinbrooke and Oso Township had by-laws in place prior to amalgamation, they were not adopted by Central Frontenac after amalgamation.

Currently the Township only has basic safety standard by-laws that pertain to property issues such as garbage, fire and physical hazards. The bylaws do not concern themselves with more aesthetic issues such as derelict roofing, siding, general maintenance and cleanliness and pests.

Following Neven’s presentation, Robert Pollard, a former OPP officer who lives in Central Frontenac and works as a prosecutor on behalf of the Municipality of Bancroft enforcing property standard by-laws there, recommended that council adopt a property standards by-law similar to that of Bancroft and other municipalities like Faraday, Wollaston and Carlow-Mayo.

"Driving through this township you can’t help but notice all of the derelict buildings surrounded by garbage, car parts and other refuse around so many buildings in this municipality. Driving from the south to the north, at almost every intersection there is a derelict building or an abandoned trailer and garbage to the nth degree. For a municipality that is trying to encourage people to settle and locate businesses here, these impressions are lasting. And for that very reason I think you need to adopt a property standards by-law,” Pollard told council.

Pollard came armed with a number of photos of derelict buildings in the township, but council did not want to see the photos.

Following the presentation, councilors weighed in on the matter. Councilor Tom Dewey strongly supported adopting a property standards by-law, while Councilor Norman Guntensperger said he agreed that safety was an issue but otherwise was opposed to measures of conformity.

“I think we need to tread very carefully down the road towards imposing conformity upon people in this municipality, for a number of reasons. People choose to live in the country expecting a certain amount of freedom, and secondly, a number of people who can’t afford what it might cost to replace a roof, for an example, don’t need another added stressor of being forced to do something that they cannot afford to do. For those reasons I will have nothing to do with it," After much debate council passed a motion directing staff to draft a property standards by-law and to host two public consultations on the subject.

Strategic Plan

CAO Shawn Trépanier presented his outline for a strategic plan for the township, which he said would take place in five stages, with the final stage to be completed by October 2012.

The plan would be flexible and be reviewed every few years in order to keep up to date with the goals of the municipality and would be based on information from all over the municipality. Following the presentation council unanimously passed a motion to begin the process of developing a strategic plan.

No blank CF cheques to televison crew

After a heated debate, council defeated a motion to grant funds to The Dimestore Fisherman television program. The show’s producers requested a fee of $11,900 plus the cost of board and lodging for the six days it would take the crew to film a fishing program in the area. They said it would be broadcast 18-20 times over six months in North America.

Mayor Janet Gutowski supported the motion but a number of councilors spoke against it, leading Gutowski to propose amendments designed to make it less expensive for the township, with the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation policy covering some of the costs.

Councilor Guntensperger then challenged Mayor Gutowski because she was trying to propose an amendment while she was chairing the meeting, and the original motion was put to vote and was defeated.

Frontenac County approves Ompah base construction agreement; Parham move put on back burner

After confirming that North Frontenac Council had already approved a cost-sharing plan for the construction of an ambulance base/fire hall in Ompah, Frontenac County Council authorized Paul Charbonneau, the Chief of Paramedic Services, to oversee the hiring of a project manager for the construction project.

Charbonneau anticipated that it will take a few weeks to prepare a request for proposal for the hiring, and expects that someone will be in place by the New Year, for anticipated construction beginning as early as May, 2012.

Before that happens, however, the project manager will have to do a detailed costing of the project, which will need to be approved by both parties. Frontenac County has $300,000 set aside to cover its anticipated costs, and North Frontenac has $400,000. Preliminary estimates for the project that were done over a year ago pegged it at $850,000 so there might be a shortfall for one or both of the participants. Final approval for the construction will have to come from each council, and the project will not move forward until that happens.

In debating a resolution confirming the cost sharing agreement that staff at the county and the township worked out last month (which was detailed in the Frontenac News last week) members of Frontenac County Council returned to their concerns about the long-term implications of locating an ambulance base at Ompah.

“The assumption is that when the ambulance base is built in Ompah, the Parham base would then go to Sharbot Lake. That is what the original motion, approved by the previous council, says. And that is unacceptable. It is my opinion that the northern sections of South Frontenac will be poorly served if the Parham base moves and I for one campaigned last year on a promise of maintaining service for my constituents. I'm not feeling good about this decision. I don't think it is the right decision,” said County Council member John McDougall from South Frontenac.

“I have to echo the comments of Councilor McDougall, with no disrespect to the representatives from North Frontenac,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski. “I understand the sensitivity of the issues, and I don't know that there is the political will that the move from Parham to Sharbot Lake will happen should this ambulance/garage come to fruition. However I don't accept that we will reach agreement; I'm not sure that the numbers and the challenges around building the fire hall along with the base can be overcome … I echo all of your concerns, John, but I will be supporting this motion as it is presented. But for the next three years I will strongly oppose moving that Parham base.”

“I agree there is a by-law on the books that says Parham will move,” said Paul Charbonneau, “but it was always to be done with additional review. Once we have established the North Frontenac project we will look again at population growth numbers. The move from Parham is not something that is going to happen during this term of council.”

The current council will remain in place until December of 2014.

Clayton concerned about Fairmount auditorium re-build.

Normally, accepting minutes from previous meetings is one of the housekeeping agenda items that causes little fuss at council meetings, with concerns being limited to grammatical and spelling errors.

But North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton expressed concerns about one of the clauses in a motion receiving a staff report about a particular fund-raising initiative.

In accepting a staff report on the fledgling fund-raising campaign for the redevelopment of the Fairmount Home auditorium, there was a clause “supporting the establishment of a committee to launch a fundraising campaign ... “

“If we have a committee and it starts to raise funds for redevelopment then we are bound to redevelop the auditorium. I said at the last meeting that we should have a debate about whether we want to go ahead with the redevelopment,” said Clayton.

Susan Beckel, the deputy clerk of the county, who prepares meeting minutes and agendas, said that no amendments had been made to the original motion, which included the clause about supporting a committee.

“I've learned a very important lesson from this,” said Clayton, “I must make sure to formally propose amendments instead of just giving direction to staff.”

“I would respectfully disagree with you about this,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski to Clayton. “I know of a lot of groups that have raised money for things that for one reason or another didn't come to fruition. It's not the best way to go about it, but it happens.”

“The motion was passed as it was written,” said Warden Gary Davison, “but I do understand what you are saying, Bud, as we have not decided whether to do this renovation or not.”

The estimated cost of a full-scale redevelopment of the auditorium, which was prepared in September of 2010, was $1.5 million.

Meeting date changed – Council meetings are normally scheduled for the third Wednesday of each month, which would put the December meeting on the 21st. Since that date is close to the Christmas holiday, council decided to meet one week earlier, on the 14th. One of the agenda items will be the selection of a new warden, as the tradition is for the sitting warden to step down at the end of each year. Warden Davison has been in place for two years, the final year of the previous term of council, and the inaugural year of this term.

(Editorial Note – The public is welcome to all council meetings, at the county and township level. Township meetings, and the county meeting in Lennox and Addington, are all held in readily accessible halls.

At Frontenac County, however, one of the internal doors to the meeting room is locked. To get through the door, one needs to find a member of the county staff to open the door by swiping a card. The council meetings take place in a room that is surrounded by the headquarters of the Frontenac Paramedic Services, which is apparently why security is necessary.

Two reporters normally attend these meetings. As members of the press, we are aware of the security system and we know our way around the offices so we can usually find someone to let us in pretty quickly. However, a member of the public who decides they would like to attend would not have that advantage. There is no signage indicating a meeting is in progress or what to do to get through the locked door.

This means that in practical terms the Frontenac County Council meetings are not as open to the public as are the other municipal meetings that we cover. It would not be accurate to say that these meetings make very gripping entertainment, but they do conduct public business.

Barring any last-minute political intervention, a project manager will be hired early this winter to work out the construction details for a 1,500 square foot ambulance post and a 2,750 square foot fire hall in a single building to be located in Ompah.

The project has been mired in political and administrative wrangling for 19 months. The fire hall portion of the project is the responsibility of North Frontenac Township and the ambulance base portion is the responsibility of Frontenac County, and it has been difficult for the two parties to come to a cost-sharing agreement for the construction.

It took nine months for the two parties to agree that a project manager should be hired to oversee all the construction, and that the construction standards need to conform to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.

By that time, a municipal election had taken place and new councils were in place at both levels of municipal government.

The two parties have been at odds for the past year over who will pay what share of the construction costs. The county had been insisting that since it will be using about 1/3 of the space, it should pay 1/3 of construction costs. The township, arguing that since the fire hall portion will consist mainly of a heated garage, while the ambulance base will be a finished space, a 50/50 cost split is fair.

In July, County Council instructed its staff to consider alternative cost-sharing possibilities with North Frontenac staff, and two tele-conferences took place in October.

After the second tele-conference, an agreement had been reached.

Servicing costs, i.e. well, septic, hydro, will be shared on a 50/50 basis (North Frontenac had previously offered to pay 100% of those costs).

Land purchase costs ($29,000), as well as the cost of basic construction, including the foundation, framing, roofing, exterior and interior doors, windows, exterior finishes, all interior walls finished, electrical, heating, and plumbing, will be shared according to the relative size of the “areas set aside for the exclusive use of each party” in the words of Paul Charbonneau, Frontenac County Chief of Paramedic Services.

The breakthrough in negotiations came when the parties agreed that they would each pay 100% of the cost of any interior finishing they choose to undertake, such as flooring, cupboards, kitchen counters, appliances, etc. in their own sections of the building.

With a staff agreement in place, North Frontenac Council gave its approval on Monday for a Request for Proposal to be set out for a project manager to prepare a final costing for a 4,250 square foot building in Ompah to house the two services.

North Frontenac Township Chief Administrative Officer Cheryl Robson prepared a detailed nine-page report for Council, and recommended that council approve issuing a joint request for proposal (RFP) with the county for a project manager.

“Are you comfortable with the agreement you have reached with county staff?” Councilor John Inglis asked Robson.

“Very,” she said.

Inglis wondered why county staff will issue the RFP on behalf of itself and North Frontenac.

“I thought this project was to be an equal partnership,” he said.

“Someone has to take the lead,” replied Mayor Bud Clayton.

“George Gorrie [Chief Building Official for North Frontenac] will be involved and nothing will proceed until it is brought back to our council,” said Robson.

North Frontenac has $291,000 set aside for the fire hall and the Ompah firefighters have said they will contribute $50,000 in fundraised dollars. The township has another $58,000 in a capital reserve fund that can be used. Although the final cost of the project has not been determined, Cheryl Robson's report says that up to another $150,000 may be required to cover the township’s portion of costs.

Councilor Wayne Good, who has taken a hard line in the past that no extra money should be put into the fire hall project, was not at Monday's meeting.

Frontenac County Council also meets this week.

They will be considering a motion to accept the cost sharing agreement in principle and have their staff bring the matter back for final resolution “as soon as the Township of North Frontenac has confirmed its final support of these cost sharing matters and confirmed all other details required for the project to proceed.”

Campground owners call NF Council 'anti-business' 

Rob Gentile, a consultant and part owner of Bon Echo Campground, made a submission to North Frontenac Council on behalf of a group of 11 campground owners in North Frontenac.

He read out a shortened version of a longer submission he had sent to council, in which he talked about a number of concerns the campground owners have with existing and proposed restrictions on campgrounds in the township's Official Plan.

He said that for a variety of reasons, the number of campgrounds has dropped from 24 to 16 over the past 20 years. He also talked about some of the grievances that private campground owners have faced in the past in dealing with the township. He zeroed in on some of the actions that staff have taken and on the work of the township lawyers, Cunningham and Swan, and Glenn Tunnock, the township's planning consultant.

Gentile made reference to two developments from recent years, those at Woodcrest and Frontenac Shores resorts. He said that not only the developers of those projects, but other professional planners as well, have raised questions about the work of Glenn Tunnock.

“Other professional planners have been consulted with respect to the Frontenac Shores and Woodcrest developments. These experts confirmed our suspicions that what they were put through at the hands of Tunnock Consulting was both unnecessary and punitive. Such ordeals may allow the official planner to increase its billing hours, but serves to discourage others from visiting here,” Gentile said.

When asked later to identify the professional planners who had been consulted, Gentile would not do so, saying they did not want to go on the record with any comments about Tunnock's work.

Gentile went on to say that “many believe the township has been unduly influenced by its official planner and attorneys.”

In concluding his remarks, Gentile said that he does not mean his remarks to be “an attack on Council or its staff.” He then said: “We've talked about what we perceive to be an anti-business environment. Maybe our perception is wrong. We'd love to be shown otherwise. This is your chance. But in the absence of such evidence, we tend to believe the overwhelming common experiences business owners have had with the township.”

After Gentile had finished, Mayor Bud Clayton said, “As members of Council we are sworn to uphold the laws of Ontario. Anything that has been done in the past has been done under our zoning bylaw. That bylaw has been reviewed and there were several public meetings held for comment, and none of the campground owners came to any of those meetings. The bylaw is now being submitted for provincial approval. You are coming here not at the 11th hour but at the 11th hour and 59 minutes.”

After reading some of the specific concerns from Mr. Gentile before the Council meeting, township staff had prepared a resolution for Council to consider, but that resolution has not yet been vetted by the township's lawyer.

The resolution deals with two specific issues that concerned a number of campground owners. One had to do with the status of existing trailer sites, which are considered legal because they were in place before rules restricting development to 30 metres from the water had been established.

Currently, if a trailer is moved off one of those sites, no new trailer can replace it, but staff proposed that new trailers be allowed on existing trailer sites.

The second issue concerns the fact that a number of campgrounds contain buildings and hydro infrastructure on lands that are technically owned by the township because they are part of shoreline road allowances. Staff proposed a mechanism to transfer those road allowances to the campground owners.

After the meeting Robert Gentile said the campground owners were happy with the resolution that Council passed.

“I only hope that it gets by the township's lawyer,” he said.

Editor's Note: We contacted Glenn Tunnock to get his reaction to Robert Gentile's remarks. Tunnock said that his philosophy “has always been to see if there is a way for people to achieve their dreams, but I also have professional obligations to abide by. Perhaps this is a case of people blaming the messenger.”

Youth programming – Don Amos and Mary Beth Scott from Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS) made a short presentation to council outlining the services the agency provides to youth in North Frontenac.

An after school program at Clarendon Central is attended by over 80% of the grade 4-8 students in the school; movie and event nights have been held in the township and the agency provides transportation for events outside of North Frontenac. As well, a Recreation Guide is produced and delivered to all North Frontenac residents. Amos said that NFCS will be providing Aboriginal programming in the township this year thanks to a grant from the United Church. The agency received $5,500 from North Frontenac Council to provide youth programming.

“Our goal is to keep them active and living in the community,” Amos said.

Young firefighters - In dealing with membership requests from the fire department for two 16-year-olds, members of council expressed a concern about the prospect of under-aged people dealing with dangerous and traumatic situations.

“It see nothing wrong with that,” said Councilor Lonnie Watkins, “the young members only do training, cleaning trucks, rolling out hoses, and that sort of thing. They don't even get their bunker gear for at least a year. How are they going to learn if they can't even join the department?”

Council accepted the 16-year-old members into the department, but said they cannot “attend any incident” until they turn 19.

New & Improved

In order to further streamline council agendas, CAO Orr recommended that the Public Works Manager be given authority to approve routine temporary boat ramp and road closures for parades, festivals and community events. Council agreed, though Councillor Vandewal made it clear that Councillors will need to be kept informed of these closures.

The necessary road closures were approved for the Sydenham (Sat Nov 26, 10 am) and Harrowsmith (Sat Dec 3, 10 am) Santa parades.

Procurement Policy

Council approved a new procurement by-law which simplifies policy goals and clarifies the process of purchasing materials, supplies and services for the township. New limits are established: a)purchases up to a value of $150. are exempt from the policy, b) Purchases up to $5000 may be purchased from a Vendor of Record (VOR), or if there is none, from the lowest of three quotes., c) purchases between $5,000 and $25,000 may be made from a VOR or a through request for quotes, and d) purchases exceeding $25,000 shall require a request for tender or proposal. Details of this nine-page policy may be viewed on the township’s website.

Drinking Water Source Protection

Council received draft policies from the three Conservation Authorities that cover the township: Cataraqui Region, Rideau Valley and Quinte. Township Planner Lindsay Mills pointed out that the township had no aquifers that qualified as “highly vulnerable’, and therefore posing significant threats to the quality of drinking water. He went on to say that although the proposed policies and programs are all good ones, they would require a great amount of staff time and municipal expense to implement. He asked Council to provide guidance. In general, the main threats to drinking water aquifers are road salts and septic systems.

Sydenham Subdivision Nearing Final Stages

Mills reported that RKR Landholdings are working to get final approval to proceed with ‘Valleyview Estates’, off Rutledge Road in the village of Sydenham. The township is preparing to enter into a pre-service agreement, as the next stage of the process.

Donations to Firefighters’ Associations

Portland District Community Caring, a small non-profit group that accepts donations of clothing,household items, etc, and resells them for very modest amounts, has donated $2,000 to be shared equally between the Firefighters Associations of Loughborough and Portland, for the purchase of uniforms, batteries, flashlights, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Pumper Truck Damaged

Mayor Davison reported that a South Frontenac pumper truck had recently been forced off the road and damaged. The vehicle is being transported to Winnipeg for repairs, and a temporary replacement has been found. As the accident was not the fault of the township, full costs of the repair have been covered by insurance.

Editorial by Jeff Green

The Parham ambulance base will have to close after the Ompah base opens

Barring anything unforeseen, Frontenac County will be building an ambulance post in Ompah next year.

Four members of county council already support going ahead with the project. Two months ago Frontenac County Warden Gary Davison said he would support the Ompah project, tipping the balance in its favour, once county and township staff work out a cost sharing agreement and the construction standards are assured.

With that agreement now in place the project will proceed, with county approval coming this week or next month at the latest.

While those advocating for the Ompah base, particularly North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton, have downplayed the connection between building the Ompah base and the eventual closing of the Parham base in favour of a new base in Sharbot Lake, that move will have to take place once the Ompah base is built.

Research done by the IBI group in 2008, and further verified by Frontenac Paramedic Service data that has been collected since then, demonstrates that putting a 12-hour a day base in Ompah creates a service gap in the centre of the County, which can only be covered by moving the Parham base north to Hwy. 7.

For that reason, the original council resolution calling for the Ompah base to be built also called for the Parham base to be moved. That resolution is still on the books.

Undoubtedly the construction of a new ambulance base on or near Hwy. 7 will be brought forward to County Council in 2013 or 2014 at the latest.

Frontenac County Council would be ill-advised to waver on this matter. There are winners and losers any time an ambulance base is moved, and being a winner or a loser can sometimes have life and death consequences. A council charged with this kind of responsibility needs to act based on the data that is provided to it by its staff and the consultants it hires to provide information. Otherwise it is exposing its citizens to increased risks and itself to potential liability.

Council members can argue all they want about whether they agree with the information that is presented to them, but with nothing else to go on but dots on a map marking where ambulance calls actually have actually come from, they will really have no choice.

Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski, who also sat on Frontenac County Council back in February of 2010, opposed building the Ompah base at that time precisely because it meant that the Parham base would have to move to Sharbot Lake, and nothing has changed.

The Parham base has served the northern half of the county and the surrounding region well since it was built over 40 years ago, and closing it will be a blow to a community that is also losing its local school.

Overall, this is really a good news story, however.

Not that long ago the Parham service was the only one in Frontenac County north of the Kingston City limits. With 24-hour a day ambulances stationed in Sydenham and Sharbot Lake and a 12-hour post in Ompah, response times on a county-wide basis will be vastly better in the coming years than they were in the past and the net result of that will be lives saved and hospital stays shortened.

Still, Parham residents will be left with a bitter taste in their mouths because Ompah's gain will ultimately be their loss, particularly in light of the fact that the consultant's report that started off this entire process did not recommend the Ompah build.

It said that the best, and cheapest option would be to build a new base at Hwy. 509 and Ardoch Road, and that the Parham base should remain open. 

Fire hall plans to be fine tuned before seeking bids

A proposed municipal complex on Hwy. 41 just south of Northbrook, which was originally slated to include a fire hall and municipal offices, has been scaled back.

A draft plan for a fire hall only was before Council this week. Questions remain about the use of a second floor mezzanine for office space, and about some of the other specifications for the building.

“What are we going to do next? Time is passing on this,” said Deputy Reeve Bill Cox.

Fire Chief Casey Cuddy said that before any decisions are made, “we need to fine tune the drawing.”

“We do need to come to a final design and then agree to work with it,” said Councilor Tony Fritsch.

A motion was passed asking Cuddy to fine tune the design and bring it back to the final meeting of the year, in Denbigh on December 17.

Council may then decide to use the final drawing as the basis for a set of architect's drawings, which will form the basis of a tender document. Alternatively they might opt to set out a request for proposal for a design-build project, based more loosely on the final drawings.

The budget for the project has also not been determined, but it will likely become the centrepiece of the budget deliberations for 2013 and perhaps beyond.

Grant application for Glastonbury Road Bridge – In what would have to be considered a long shot, Addington Highlands is applying for a grant from the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative (MIII) to rebuild the one lane Retan Bridge on Glastonbury Road. The township is seeking about $540,000, about 1% of the $50 million from the Ontario-wide initiative. The population of the township is about .0015% percent of the Ontario total.

If successful, the province will cover 90% of the cost for the $600,000 project, and the township 10%.

Cost to retain Northbrook canteen pegged at $10,000 – In response to an inquiry from the Northbrook Legion, the recreation committee has looked in a preliminary way at what it would cost in materials to bring the canteen adjacent to the Skateboard park in Northbrook back to a useable state. The Legion said they would be interested in using the canteen and paying for its upkeep if the township is willing to halt the decline of the structure. Ever since the Blueberry Festival ceased to operate 9 years ago the canteen has had little or no use.

Councilor Tony Fritsch said that it would cost “$3,200 for roofing materials, $3,000 to $3,500 for water treatment. If you add on $1,500 for a covered porch, $500 for electrical and some money for new lock sets, it gets to about $10,000 to make it useable. If you are going to fix it up, you would have to double that.”

“That project might make for a Trillium grant application later on,” said Bill Cox.

“If we are going to do this, the question is why?” asked Reeve Henry Hogg.

“If we don’t spend the money, it won’t be usable and I hate to see us lose something that we have,” said Bill Cox. “I’ll make a motion that we contact the Legion and tell them these are our preliminary thoughts about cost and ask them what their thoughts are.”

The motion passed.

Playground equipment – Keep, fix or tear down

The Recreation Facilities Committee has completed an inventory of play structures (climbers, swing sets, etc.) that are owned by the township. Some of them need to be torn down, a number need to be repaired, and a few are in good shape.

Most of the equipment at the former Denbigh school is in poor shape and needs to be removed, with the exception of the large swing set, which will stay.

This is in spite of the fact that a number of years ago, 12-year-old Tony Fritsch (now the chair of the Recreation Facilities Committee) broke his leg so badly after falling off that swing set that he was forced to wear a full leg cast for several months.

“When I went to the hospital they were going to cut off my rubber boots to work on the break, but they were good boots so my dad wouldn’t let them, so they had to pull them off,” Fritsch said, before adding, “that was off the record.”

OMPF to be kind to AH – The Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, a transfer of funds from the province to municipal governments that require support, is being changed. The impact of the change will be minimal to Addington Highlands, which received $1.338 million in 2012 and will receive $1.341 million in 2013. In the Northern and Rural Fiscal Circumstances index, Addington Highlands had a ranking of 9.9 out of 10, meaning the township faces the highest level of fiscal need and requires a continued high level of provincial support. Sort of a bad-news-is-good-news scenario.

Cut in transfer nudges up SF tax hike

For the year 2012, South Frontenac Township received $1.86 million from the Province of Ontario under the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) to help with municipal social service and other costs for programs that at one time were fully funded by the province.

The OMPF program is changing in 2013 and for at least the next four years. The total funding will be decreased on a provincial level by $98 million, and those municipalities with the greatest capacity to handle a decrease, based on a number of factors, will be the ones that face the largest cut.

For South Frontenac that amounts to $206,000 less in OMPF funding in 2013. The total to be transferred will be $1.692 million.

Since the announcement of 2013 OMPF allocation was only made on November 15, just as the South Frontenac budgeting process was at the final stages, Treasurer Louise Fragnoti presented Council with some new budget numbers at their meeting in Sydenham on Tuesday night, Dec. 4.

The last time Council looked at the 2013 budget, they gave staff a directive to come back with two scenarios, one with a 2.98% increase in taxes for the average residential property, and one with a 3.28% increase.

Incorporating the $206,000 shortfall into her latest report, Fragnoti proposed three scenarios for council’s consideration.

In order to reach the 2.98% target, Council will need to cut about $500,000 from spending plans, with cuts to winter road control as well as maintenance to hardtop and gravel roads making up about half of the shortfall.

As well, Fragnoti proposed making a change in the way ratepayers are charged for the township's waste management system.

Until now, a flat $100 user fee has been charged to properties with residences on them. Staff proposed integrating waste into the regular budget, so that the costs will be shared by all properties, including vacant land, and properties with higher assessments will also pay more for garbage collection than those with lower assessments, just as they do for everything else the township does. This change would bring in more money and help cover for the OMPF cut.

Council was left with three scenarios to consider. Under option A, they could keep the waste management fee as a separate item and increase it to $110, and make a number of cuts to bring the budget to a 3.84% increase.

Under option B, they could integrate the waste management fee into the budget, make the same cuts as in option A, not make the road maintenance cuts, and come to a 3.84% increase. Under option C, they could integrate the waste fee and make the road maintenance cuts and cut the increase to the 2.98% target.

With council feeling uneasy about changing the way it collects fees for garbage pick-up and two memebers absent from the meeting, debate on the budget proposals was deferred to next week’s committeee of the whole meeting (December 11 - 7:00 pm)

OMPF cuts spare other townships In our region

South Frontenac would appear to be the only one losing out under Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) reform. North Frontenac will also see a marginal increase to $1.054 million. Central Frontenac will also see a marginal increase to $1.47 million;  Tay Valley Township will see a marginal increase to $546,700, and Lanark Highlands will see a marginal increase to $1.32 million.

Editorial by Jeff Green

From a distance it has been a lot of fun watching the trials and tribulations of the City of Toronto and its outlandish Mayor Rob Ford.

In the first instance, there was the outrage of the Toronto Star, whose editors still can't believe that the citizenry of Toronto refused to heed their unrelenting warnings by electing Ford in the first place. After that, courtesy of some of my old friends, who, judging from their Facebook posts, have become obsessed with every nuance of Mr. Ford's personality and political program, I have come to see the whole Rob Ford thing as a kind of small-town mayor issue set in a large city.

The reaction to Ford is personal; it's as if everyone knows him, as they would a very annoying neighbour who gets drunk on Saturday nights and walks up and down the sidewalk singing Danny Boy off-key.

The decision by a Superior Court judge to remove Mr. Ford from office is particularly interesting from a small municipality point of view. Although Toronto's budget is thousands of times larger than our local municipalities, and there are probably more people working for the City of Toronto than live in Frontenac or L&A Counties, conflict of interest rules for mayors and members of council everywhere are exactly the same, and it doesn’t matter how much money, or little, is involved.

What Rob Ford did would raise the same objections here as it did in Toronto.

Although Mr. Ford and his supporters blame his downfall on a left-wing conspiracy, and while the decision by a Toronto resident to bring the conflict of interest charge to court may have been politically motivated, the truth is that Mr. Ford's actions gave the judge no choice but to rule as he did.

The issue in front of the judge was not whether it was fair to make Rob Ford pay back the $3,000 he raised for his football team's charitable foundation by sending request letters out on city letterhead. The issue in front of the judge was much more simple than that.

A motion was made at council to excuse Rob Ford from paying $3,000. Mr. Ford spoke to the motion, and he voted on the motion. Municipal politicians in Ontario must excuse themselves from any decision that has a direct effect on their own financial interest. It could not be clearer than that. All Ford had to do was say, "I have a conflict of interest in this case", pull his chair back from the table, and stay quiet until the vote was taken.

Whatever else Rob Ford has done or not done as mayor of Toronto, he has breached the conflict of interest act and has thus been removed from office.

He will appeal, and another judge may try to bring some nuance to the situation, some lesser penalty, but the judge in the first instance certainly acted properly.

Ford broke the most basic rule of municipal politics, and he can't blame any of his political opponents for the consequences he faces as the result.

What happened to him should give some local politicians pause. From time to time, we have made note of apparent, even indirect, conflicts by members of some of the local councils, as the press in Toronto did in the Rob Ford case. The difference was that someone took it a step further and brought the case to court, and that is what has, presumably, cost Ford his job.

It is rather unlikely that someone would take the trouble of taking a municipal councilor or mayor to court over a conflict, but the possibility exists.

The irony is that it is actually very difficult to remove someone from office in an Ontario municipality, as the Council from the City of London is finding out.

Their mayor, Joe Fontana, is facing criminal charges for fraud, but the council can only ask, they cannot force him to step aside until the charges are dealt with.

A council does not have the power to remove the person who has been elected to head it - be they elected by the public, as a Mayor or Reeve is, or even elected by the council itself, as a Warden is.

The Council of the City of London, might well try to make Joe Fontana’s life miserable by thwarting his efforts and blocking his policies, but until he has his day in court there is nothing stopping him from thumbing his nose at his council and hanging onto the chain of office for dear life.

Proposal for park at Clar-Mill Hall

Jocelyne Lemke appeared before Council to advocate for a park in the Plevna/Ompah region of the township.

“I am grateful for everything that we have in the township and for the efforts that the council makes. However a park facility would be a great place for an entire family to socialize! Where our children could play, families could picnic, adults gather, and community events could be held outdoors. An ideal park would have play structures, swings, benches, picnic tables and an outdoor shelter,” she said.

While she mentioned a number of possible locations, she said the area around the Clar-Mill hall in Plevna, which already has a winter hockey rink, would be ideal.

"The Clar-Mill volunteers had a park on their wish list a couple of years ago so I know they would work on building one,” she said.

She asked if Council might consider putting in a Trillium application for a new park when they are working on next year's budget, estimating that it would cost $40,000 or more for the project.

Mayor Bud Clayton thanked Jocelyn Lemke for her presentation and said they would look at it when they are doing the budget in the coming weeks.

Only 40 septic re-inspections in 2012: Eric Kohlsmith from the Mississippi-Rideau Septic System Office (MRSSO), presented his report on the 2012 voluntary septic re-inspection program on the township's lakes.

The program is designed to inspect about 100 properties on as many lakes as possible within the township, with a view to fostering an understanding of the need to maintain functioning septic systems on waterfront properties because of the impact on phosphorous and other compounds on wildlife habitat.

In the executive summary to his report Kohlsmith outlined some of the issues that the program faced this year: “During the 2012 sewage system re-inspection program 40 properties were inspected on nine lakes – Brule, Buckshot, Canonto, Grindstone, Mackie, Marble, Mazinaw, Palmerston and Shabomeka. Two hundred and thirty-four Property Owner Information packages were mailed out in a total of four mailings. New for 2012, the MRSSO went door to door to 76 properties that had not responded by the week of August 13. In total 234 Property Owner packages were sent, rendering a 17% response rate. One of the possible reasons for the low response rate was that approximately 131 properties were non-respondents from previous years.”

Of those 40 inspections, two resulted in recommendations for replacement, and about 20 others required remediation of some form, most typically a simple pump out. In addition to the 40 inspections, another 36 property owners were visited and given information about septic system maintenance.

“The goal of the program over the last two years has been to inspect properties that we had been unable to inspect in previous years, and the township needs to decide what to do for next year. We could continue to focus on non-respondents, which would reduce the overall number of inspections; expand the voluntary program to property owners we have not yet approached; enter into mandatory inspection to force compliance; or do a combination of all three,” Kohlsmith said.

He pointed out that Tay Valley Township, which does 200 inspections each year, passed a bylaw enabling mandatory inspection on seven of its more sensitive lakes, and uses voluntary inspections in the rest of the township.

A handshake or Mazinaw Rock? After a discussion about a proposed new township logo at the last meeting, which led to the rejection of the proposal after a 3-3 vote, Councilor Betty Hunter was seeking clarification.

“Does Council want to keep the existing logo or should we be looking at commissioning a new one?” she asked.

Mayor Clayton then said that the old logo does not feature a handshake as everyone on Council thought.

“I talked to Laurie Lemke, who designed it, and she said the logo includes trees, water, and Mazinaw Rock, not a handshake,” said Clayton.

Lonnie Watkins said, “Look at it, it's two hand shaking.”

“No,” said Clayton, “it's the rock, the trees and the water.

“Well, what's this big hand doing holding the rock?” asked Watkins.

While Council did not answer Hunter's question, it looks as if the rock (or handshake) may be here to stay.

Arsenic to be removed from fire hall site -

A Phase 11 environmental assessment of the proposed building site for a new fire hall has been completed by Malroz Engineering. They found no issues of concern at the site, save for a localised area where levels of arsenic were high. This area did not correspond to any of the previous uses of the site as a gas station and garage. Nonetheless, Malroz recommended removing the offending soil, preferably with them present, and then taking more samples for testing. Costs for this further step should be minimal.

Councilor Inglis said that he had been talking to a retired engineer, who told him the arsenic is more than likely naturally occurring and should be left where it is.

“Can your friend give a stamp of approval for the site?” asked Deputy Mayor Fred Perry.

Council decided to take the next step, which will get them an approved building site for a new fire hall.

A bridge too far – Public Works Manager Jim Phillips recommended that the township apply to a new provincial infrastructure program for a new two-lane bridge to replace the one-lane Mississippi bridge on Road 509.

The existing bridge is in need of repair, and a new bridge would not only negate the need for repairs, it would deal with a long standing concern over having a one-lane bridge on a major arterial road that is used by delivery trucks on a regular basis.

“We have applied for that bridge how many times in the past? Two, or is it three?” said Councilor Wayne Good. "Why apply again when the province is so uninterested?”

“The bridge was in good shape then,” said Mayor Clayton. “Now it isn't. That improves our chances.”

It will cost the township $10,000 to do the groundwork for the application, and if successful the township will have to pay about $200,000 for a new bridge, which would cost about between $2 and $2.5 million.