Addington Highlands Council - Jul 3/12

Jeff Green | Jul 05, 2012

Policing Update

Staff Sgt. Greg McClellan of the Napanee detachment and Sgt. Bernie Leblanc of the Kaladar detachment paid a visit to Addington Highlands Council on Tuesday.

The visit is the first in some time from the OPP, and Staff Sgt. McClelland said that the OPP intends to bring quarterly updates to council in the future.

McClelland also brought information about what the OPP call the Mobilization and Engagement Model of Community Policing that the OPP is implementing province-wide.

The model is based on the identification of different types of communities as far as policing is concerned, ranging from what are called red zones, where incidents of various kinds are prevalent, to green zones, where there are few incidents.

The goal of the model is for police to work with community partners, from schools to social services to municipalities, to identify and deal with the root causes of crime in red zone areas to slowly change them to yellow, blue and eventually green zones.

In green areas, such as Addington Highlands, Stone Mills, and North Frontenac, the model focuses on identifying situational crimes that occur, such as seasonal break and enters or traffic issues on summer weekends, and finding solutions to those issues through allocation of resources and community engagement.

The model will be introduced to the local community at a public forum for residents and council members in Addington Highlands and North Frontenac in the early fall, McClelland said.

Commercial/Institutional construction dominates

In a region where residential construction tends to outstrip commercial construction by a wide margin, projects being undertaken by the Kaladar Shell, the Northbrook Petro Can, Hardy Inn and Flintshire farms have pushed up construction values for the first half of 2012.

The largest portion of the $5,666,429 in construction permits in 2012 is for the pending rebuild of Pine Meadow Nursing Home.

New home construction was actually down from the same period in 2011, which was $1.35 million (the 2012 total is $1.18 million) but the renovation total of $4.37 million as opposed to $375,000 last year has made all the difference.

Permit fees are down in 2012 as compared to 2011, by almost $2,000, because of the permit holiday for commercial and institutional construction in the township.