Addington Highlands Council - February 2

Craig Bakay | Feb 10, 2021

As it turns out, there are indeed turtles in the Cloyne area. And part of the reason we know that is that the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre has put some there. At Addington Highlands’ last Council meeting, Council declined to express support for a provincial government program aimed at helping preserve at-risk species such as Blanding’s turtles, one such program operating in the Cloyne area. Several members of Council, including Reeve Henry Hogg and Coun. Helen Yanch expressed doubt that there even was a population in the area.

However, at Tuesday’s regular (online) Council meeting, CAO/Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed added a last-minute agenda item.

“I’ve just this morning received an email from Dr. Sue Carstairs, executive and medical director of the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre telling us that they do have a program operating in the Cloyne area,” Reed said.

Reed went on to say that the email said the centre is doing field work whereby they take hatchling Blanding’s turtles that have been reared in their facility and release them into the wild equipped with devices attached to their shells such that they can be tracked by radio telemetry.

Their findings are then compared to native turtles in an effort to learn about the turtles’ behaviour in a multi-pronged effort to mitigate an information gap. The hatchlings come from incubated eggs taken from injured turtles that are brought into the centre for treatment. The field work program has been running for 10 years.

“I still don’t know where they’re finding these turtles,” said Yanch. “Up the Skootamatta Lake Road possibly.

“I know there’s a lot of turtle work going on in Bon Echo Park.”

Newsletter

Council approved its 2021 newsletter that will go out to ratepayers this year. The final item included is a municipal staff directory.

Off road vehicles on roads

Council directed staff to prepare a bylaw repealing its off-road vehicles on municipal roads bylaw following a decision by the province to allow off-road vehicles on municipal highways.

“Our current bylaw allows pretty much everything the province does so unless you want to prohibit something there’s really no need to have the bylaw,” said CAO/Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed.

“So, its redundant,” said Dep. Reeve Tony Fritsch.

“I’ll tell you, I’m not a big fan of ATVs on any road,” said Coun. Helen Yanch. “They’re a menace.”

Waste management report

Roads and Waste Manager Brett Reavie reported that he’s ordered sand for the Ward 2 dome.

“We haven’t had to order more sand since last February,” Reavie said. “Ward 1 still has lots of sand.”

Reavie also noted that there has been a reduction in construction debris noted at all waste sites and there have been reduced trips to the Napanee disposal site from Kaladar because they’ve been increasing compaction of household garbage in the compaction bin.

No funding application

Council decided not to apply for Municipal Modernization Program funding.

“To be eligible for additional funding, you have to show you used the funds we already got,” said CAO/Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed. “We designated those funds for a service review for the Addington Highlands Centre in Denbigh (which hasn’t been done yet).”

“We have so little staff and our population is small and spread out,” said Dep. Reeve Tony Fritsch. “It’s not obvious to me that there are major benefits to be reaped here (by applying).

“We run a pretty lean operation here now and I don’t want to waste money on any exercise we can’t see something coming out of.”

“On the one hand, I don’t think one should miss a funding opportunity but on the other hand, we don’t want to apply for something we can’t use.”

Reed said the matter is on the agenda for an upcoming Lennox and Addington CAOs meeting and perhaps there may be a joint project the Township could participate in.