Local budget up by 3% in Addington Highlands

With little muss or fuss, Addington Highlands Council approved their 2013 budget at a council meeting in Flinton on Monday afternoon. With no members of the public in attendance, council passed a motion to adopt a levy of $2.27 million for local expenses in 2013, an increase of $77,000 or 3.1% over the 2012 local expenditures locally. With Lennox and Addington County taxes going up by a similar amount, the impact of municipal tax increases to local ratepayers in AH will be minimal in 2013.

The increase in 2013 is significantly lower than a total increase of over 7% in 2012, which included an 11% increase in local taxes.

This is the first year of a new four-year property assessment cycle, so individual ratepayers, particularly those who live in waterfront properties, will likely see an increase, while non-waterfront dwellers may indeed see a municipal tax decrease. Waterfront property assessments continue to rise at a higher rate than non-waterfront assessments, which continues to shift the burden of local taxation – a trend that has been pronounced in recent years throughout the region.

Reeve warned to keep his opinions to himself

After making comments at a recent meeting of Council, which were reported on by the Frontenac News, Reeve Hogg and his council received a letter from Brian Crane, Ontario Chief Negotiator to the Algonquin Land Claim.

“I believe that a number of the concerns raised in that report can be addressed with the information below,” wrote Crain.

Among the points that Crain made were that local municipalities will have no obligation to “establish or maintain public roads on settlement lands” and that “Algonquin land owners will be in the same position as other private landowners as regards fire protection services.”

One of the other points Crain made related to the cost of municipal zoning for settlement lands in the agreement.

“The process to provide settlement land parcels with initial official plan and zoning designations will be addressed in the Final Agreement and Implementation Plan to be developed after the AIP [Agreement in Principle]. We do not intend that such implementation will fall on municipalities,” Crain wrote.

“None of the responses change very much, because the AIP is vague on so many points,” said Hogg.

“The key word in the planning clause, for me, is the word 'intend',” said Councilor Adam Snider. “They do not 'intend' for there to be costs, but they do not say there will be no costs. 'Intend' is not the same as 'no'.”

“I suppose we should prepare a formal written response to this. I'm not saying the reports in the paper were wrong, but they seem to be pretty sensitive about this,” said Reeve Hogg.

Hogg then recounted that he had a 30-minute conversation with Norm Lemke, the co-chair of the Municipal Advisory Committee. “Lemke said I should be careful what I say, because we don't want the agreement to fall apart because the whole thing might end up before the Supreme Court and it might be much worse for us in the end. I personally don't see how it can be worse, but there you have it.”

There are a number of parcels of land in Addington Highlands that are included in the AIP, including two larger pieces just north of Bon Echo Park on either side of Highway 41.

Municipal Hazardous Waste for AH residents

At the Cloyne Waste site at 3444 Road 506, a shared site for Addington Highlands and North Frontenac residents, there will be a Hazardous Waste Depot available between May 22 and September 25. The depot will be open on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday (1:30 to 6pm) and the 1st Saturday (1:30 to 6pm) of each month. Materials to be accepted include: automotive; antifreeze, used motor oil, gas, diesel, camp fuels, oil filters; aerosol containers such as hairspray, spray paint, etc; garden pesticides and fungicides, weed killers, pool chemicals, etc; household paints, stains, primers, single use and recyclable batteries, corrosive cleaners, etc.; mercury devices (thermometers, switches); and personal care items such as medications for humans and pets, creams, pills, etc..

For a complete list look to addingtonhighlands.ca in the coming days. An ad will also be running in the coming weeks. 

If the Frontenac County budget process were a play (it would likely be a melodrama) then the first thing that would strike the audience about the final scene, was that one of the major players was missing.

Choosing instead to preside over Business over Breakfast meeting in Sharbot Lake, County Warden Janet Gutowski ceded the chair for the final budget meeting last Thursday (May 2), leaving North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton to preside over the meeting. About an hour into the meeting, Gutowski slipped in, and sat quietly at the table as the 2013 budget was finally approved.

Before addressing the budget, Council looked briefly at a proposal from South Frontenac Councilor John McDougall to earmark $1.5 million of the accumulated County surplus in federal gas tax rebates for a homelessness and low income housing strategy. The proposal was quickly deferred until after the budget was approved.

The next item of business, one that did relate directly to the budget, was the county reserve fund policy. This topic was also deferred until after the budget process was complete, and will likely resurface at the May 15th monthly meeting of Council.

With this matter out of the way, after a bit more confusion over whether the budget was already passed after Council inadvertently accepted the budget document and had to then bring it back for reconsideration, there was finally an opportunity for members of council to open up the budget document to scrutiny for the first time since the document was rejected on March 20.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle had a number of questions regarding the document. However, there was still no appetite at the table to revisit any of the major program budgets, such as Fairmount Home, Frontenac Paramedic Services or County Administration.

Instead, Doyle decided to focus on the fate of the $130,350 operating surplus that the County ran in 2012.

“An operating surplus should be applied directly to the levy to taxpayers, and should not be simply lumped into the working fund as has been done. I move that the levy be decreased by $130,350,” said Doyle.

However, the county working fund had already been depleted earlier in the budget process. According to information provided by the Treasury department, $339,658 in working funds had already been used to offset costs, and another $178,246 was transferred to specific reserve funds. With the additional $130,350, the working fund has now shrunk by over $600,000.

Council accepted Doyle's amendment to the budget, leaving the budget levy down by about $157,000, or 1.92% as compared to last year.

In addition, the local townships will be receiving 100% of county federal gas tax rebates in 2013, effectively doubling the amount they each receive directly from the federal government each year to help fund local infrastructure projects.

These changes were enough to convince the majority of Council to accept the budget, which then passed by a vote of 7-2.

The two opposing votes both came from Frontenac Islands, and a subsequent comment about “mismanagement” at the county, attributed to David Jones, a member of County Council from Frontenac Islands, led Warden Gutowski to issue a press release.

In her release, Gutowski accused Jones of making “inaccurate, inflammatory, and unfounded” statements, which she described as “a slap in the face to our citizens, our staff, and my colleagues on council ...”.

Jones has since responded with his own press release, in which he said that the county has been characterised by inefficiency.

“Years of escalating mismanagement, escalating absenteeism in particular, is anything but effective and efficient,” he said, laying the blame for the current reality at the feet of Gutowski, who, he said, is responsible for “an atmosphere of acrimony and distrust in chamber …”

South Frontenac gets five years to wean itself from City money

South Frontenac Township’s CAO Wayne Orr took on a thankless task last fall when he went to Kingston City Hall to try to convince the city to continue paying the $600,000 per year to help with road maintenance on roads that were transferred from the city to South Frontenac 15 years ago, at the time of municipal amalgamation.

The amalgamation agreement called for the annual payments to end in 2012, but Orr argued that it remains important for the city to subsidize the road maintenance into the future.

He had limited success.

The city has agreed to continue making payments, and will transfer $469,643 in 2013. Payments will continue for another four years, but they will diminish in size with each passing year. In 2014, the payment will be $375,714; in 2015 - $281,786; in 2016 - $187,857; and in 2017 - $93,929.

After that the payments will cease.

The agreement signed this week between the city and the township makes that point clear: “THAT this agreement represents the final conclusion to the City’s responsibilities under the 1997 Amalgamation Order Section 7.2 “Compensation” (County Arterial Roads)”

The same negotiations established a similar denouement to payments between the City of Kingston and the Township of Frontenac Islands, but with smaller payouts.

Over the next five years, South Frontenac will receive $1,619,458 and the Township of Frontenac Islands $210,529.

Councilor McDougall congratulated the CAO for “concluding these negotiations,” and Councilor Vandewal concurred, saying “This is the best outcome when you consider we could easily have received nothing. Now, with cuts to the OMPF [Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding – a provincial subsidy for rural municipalities] the reality is we are going to have to maintain all these roads ourselves in the future as well as Road 38."

The money from the City of Kingston is earmarked for Perth, Battersea, Sydenham, Bellrock and Harrowsmith Roads (94 kilometres of paved roadway that until 1998 were part of the Frontenac County Road system).

Wayne Orr said that by instituting a 1% capital fund on top of each year’s budget, which has already been instituted, the township will have money in place to cover for the lost revenue by 2017, when the agreement with the Kingston City Council expires.

Tenders

The good news is that the new Tri-Axle truck for the township will cost $90,000 less than budgeted. The bad news is that the new Tri-Axle truck for the township will cost $90,000 less than budgeted.

At least that’s how Councilor Vandewal sees it.

According to Vandewal, the bad news comes from the fact that “$90,000 more was collected in taxes than was required. That’s a 1% increase,” he said.

“We should have done more homework on pricing,” said Public Works Manager Mark Segsworth, “although the money for the truck came from our capital reserve, which will be replaced next year.”

The township will be paying $231,000 for a MACK truck from Surgenor’s. There was a lower bid, for an International Truck, but the International Trucks the township has purchased in the recent past have “been nothing but trouble” Segsworth said in recommending the MACK truck.

Council also accepted the tender of $617,405 from Gordon Barr Limited for reconstruction of Wellington and Cross Streets in the village of Battersea. Although the price was the lowest of 10 bids on the job, it was $117,405 over the $500,000 that was budgeted for the job. To cover the extra, Segsworth recommended that a $350,000 Petworth Road culvert replacement project can be put off because a recent bridge inspection has determined that the culvert in better shape than the township had originally thought.

Paving rehabilitation projects in Perth Road and Harrowsmith are being done by Coco Paving Incorporated at a price of $680,991, which is within budget.

Finally, a bridge rehabilitation project on the Petworth bridge is being undertaken by Lennox and Addington County.

“Our friends in Lennox and Addington have been kind enough to consider the Petworth Bridge a boundary bridge, even though it is located entirely in South Frontenac,” said Mark Segsworth. The $92,000 cost of repairing the bridge will be funded on a 50/50 basis, and the $46,000 unbudgeted cost to South Frontenac will also be taken from the unspent $250,000 on the Petworth Road culvert.

Segwsorh said that L&A has informed South Frontenac that once this repair is done the bridge will be entirely South Frontenac’s responsibility.

“The upsetting aspect of all this is that the bridge was damaged by a logging truck, and there are people who know which company that truck was working for, but they have not come forward, forcing the entire township to cover the cost,” said Mark Segsworth.

Questions about ambulance service cuts

Councilor Del Stowe said he has been receiving communications about the cut in ambulance service in the City of Kingston and possible impacts on the availability of ambulances out of the Sydenham base as the result.

“Is that a done deal?” he asked.

John McDougall was the only South Frontenac County representative at the meeting, since Mayor Davison was absent.”

“It is a done deal,” McDougall said. “If you want any more of a comment on that you have to talk to Paul Charbonneau. He speaks for the county on that matter.”

North Frontenac approves budget

A number of residents showed up at a public meeting concerning North Frontenac Township’s 2013 budget on Monday, and those who spoke up expressed concern about year over year increases in the cost of local government.

“I calculate that the increase is something like 18% over the last three years,” said one member of the audience.

In terms of local taxation, it turns out that during the three-year life of the current council, the increase is more in the order of 27%. In 2010, it cost $3.96 million to run North Frontenac Township, and in 2013 it will cost $5.04 million, a cumulative increase of over $1 million.

The township also collects taxes for the Ministry of Education and the County of Frontenac. They will likely total just under $2.9 million in 2013 (the county budget is not complete but it is on track to result in a minor decrease in the levy to the local municipalities while the education levy was up by $23,000).

Because the county and education levies have held the line, the 7% increase ($343,000) in local taxes in 2013 is mitigated, and the total percentage increase in taxation is a little under 5%.

Waterfront ratepayers will continue to shoulder more and more of the tax burden in North Frontenac.

One waterfront ratepayer at the public meeting said, “I received a new four-year assessment notice from MPAC [Municipal Property Assessment Corporation] last fall. There has been a 43% assessment increase for my property. With the four-year phase-in that means over 10% per year, and with this budget I’m looking at something like a 15% increase in property taxes. And I am also facing an increase in my full-time property back in Ottawa.”

Mayor Bud Clayton did not dispute the ratepayer’s point.

“In fact,” he said, “a lot of the properties that are not on water received a decrease in their assessment. The burden of taxation in this township keeps shifting more and more to the waterfront property owners and there is nothing much we can do about it. We are prohibited, by law, from charging different rates for different kinds of properties.”

As Treasurer Angela Millar pointed out in her presentation, much of the upward drift in taxes in North Frontenac has to do with council's commitment to provincially mandated asset management planning. This year's budget includes a 10-year Capital Asset Replacement schedule.

Over 10 years it has been calculated that it will cost over $13.5 million to keep the township’s physical assets in place, and therefore the budgets for each year between 2013 and 2022 will include $1.35 million towards asset replacement and maintenance.

“The budget increase this year is a one-off,” said Clayton. “It means that we will be financially sustainable over the long term without facing fluctuating budget increases.”

Included in the 2013 budget are over $550,000 in road construction. Projects on the books include one on the Lavant Road (1 km double surface and 4.5 kilometres single surface paving); Ardoch Road, (2 km single surface paving); Buckshot Lake Road (5 km single surface paving), Boundary Road (2.1 kilometres double plus 0.9 kilometres single surface paving); Roads 506/509 (approx. 6.5 kilometres single surface paving), and South Road (ditching, gravel and culverts).

Also included in the budget is a fire tanker truck to be located at the Plevna fire station ($260,000); a $60,000 streetlight replacement project that will be funded with federal gas tax money; and $180,000 for renovations to the Ompah fire hall that will be paid for with monies raised in previous years for that purpose.

A $310,000 road recycling tandem/truck, as well as $83,000 in closure/post-closure costs for waste sites, and $32,000 for buffer lands are all associated with continually increasing waste management costs.

The budget also includes $220,000 for reconstruction of the Mississippi bridge, but that project will only take place if the township receives a grant to cover most of the cost. 

Preaching to the Choir – Shirley Giffin, accompanied by a number of North Frontenac landowners concerned about the impact of the Agreement In Principle for the Ontario Algonquin Land Claim in general and the proposed Crotch Lake provincial park in particular, outlined those concerns briefly for Council's benefit.

“Our prime concern is that we have not been consulted,” said Giffin, who, as a former lodge owner in the 1990s, has attended meetings of the Board of External Advisors to the land claim since 1996. She asked that Council make one more attempt to organize a public meeting, attended by government negotiators, in North Frontenac.

“I have three questions of Council,” she said. "One is whether council is willing to seek direct input into the final Agreement in Principle; if we do not ask we will definitely get no input. Will you organize a public meeting, including inviting the people necessary to hear our concerns and capable of answering questions? 2) What is the township's position is on the AIP, in particular on the recommended Crotch Lake park? And 3) what input if any did the township have on the development of the AIP? We had heard the municipalities were consulted, but we have heard that may not have really been the case."

Starting with the third question, Mayor Clayton said, “The township was treated in much the same way that the Committee of External Advisors was treated.”

He also said that the Ontario negotiator, Brian Crane, did say he would attend a public meeting in North Frontenac, but there has been no response to a township request to Crane to provide a date for a meeting.

“We will make another overture to his office,” said Clayton. “I should point out, as well, that I don't see the word environment in this agreement at all. We will get a response back to you, Mrs. Giffin,” he added.

A number of North Frontenac councilors attended a meeting in the Township of South Algonquin in early April. The meeting included representatives from municipal councils throughout the land claim territory as well as representatives from the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, and the Federation of Ontario Cottage Associations - groups that have been critical of the Agreement in Principle.

Later in their meeting on Monday, council endorsed a position paper from the Township of South Algonquin that came out of that meeting.

“There is another meeting in Eganville later in May; this one is organized by Algonquins from Golden Lake. They have the same concerns about the Agreement in Principle; they weren't consulted either,” said Councilor Gerry Martin.

Preaching to a brick wall – Jim Holton, the co-chair of the North Frontenac Lake Association Alliance, spoke about the concerns the alliance has with “a number of decisions council has made recently regarding fire protection services.”

He asked that Council defer its plans to start renovating the Ompah fire hall in the coming weeks, and defer its decision to cut the tanker service from the Ompah fire hall, which he said would severely limit the effectiveness of the Ompah crew in an emergency until a tanker arrives from Plevna or Snow Road.

“We wish to work with the fire chief to examine the services and together propose priorities to Council, bearing in mind the demands on limited Council funds, ...” said Holton.

He asked that council form a new committee to look at services, and proposed a four-point term of reference for that committee, which would report back to Council on September 30.

Council did not respond to Mr. Holton's presentation, and later in the meeting they approved the 2013 budget, which includes provisions for renovations to the existing fire hall in Ompah, and the purchase of one tanker to replace two tanker trucks that no longer meet safety standards.

Land for sale: In a related matter, Councilor Good proposed that the five-acre parcel of land in Ompah that had been earmarked as the location of a new Ompah fire hall, and at one point a Frontenac land ambulance base, be declared surplus and sold off.

The land was purchased by the township in 2008 for $27,000, and in 2012 it was the subject of a number of environmental assessments and remediation before it was declared fit for the construction project, which, however, was later scrapped. Over $30,000 was spent on the assessments and remediation.

Only Councilor Inglis argued that the township should keep the property.

Councilor Hunter expressed the hope that it would be purchased by a commercial venture of some kind, and Councilor Good's motion was approved.

Zebra Mussels in North Frontenac – Councilor Martin, reporting about a meeting of the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, said that Zebra Mussels have been found in Pine, Malcolm, and Ardoch Lakes.

“However there were Zebra Mussels in a number of other lakes in other recent years, and each time they were gone the next year. The theory is that they cannot survive the winters in Canadian Shield lakes, which is good news,” said Martin.

CF Fire Chief requests OPP training for dealing with meth labs

As a result of his team being called in by the OPP to dismantle a meth lab in Mountain Grove last week, Fire Chief Bill Young asked council to consider providing more OPP training for CF firefighters in how to effectively and safely deal with such situations. Meth labs can pose a serious danger to those called in to dismantle them since the chemicals involved can be highly combustible.

Chief Young reported that the month of March was a quiet one overall, with only 18 calls. The fire ban currently is moderate and he reported a few needless “nonsense” fires that were caused by carelessness.

Council pressures County to finalize their budget

Treasurer Michael McGovern recommended that council send a letter to the county urging them to finalize their budget so that county tax rates can be incorporated in the township's next tax billing, which must be printed no later than May 27. In his report to council McGovern stated that “delaying of the (township) tax bills any further than mid-May will result in a later due date...resulting in confusion for residents and increased complaints handled by staff, higher pre-authorized payment plan adjustments, less interest earned, delayed projects and a lack of revenue to offset school board and county payments.” Last year the township received the county rates on April 11. Council authorized staff to send a letter to the county regarding the matter.

Septic re-inspection placed back on business/ project list

CAO John Duchene wondered if council wanted septic re-inspection placed on a priority list while he is serving on staff since it is now “sitting in limbo”. Councilors agreed to put it back on the list and to further look into the issue in a timely manner so that returning cottagers can be made aware of any new updates. Council discussed the possibility of making septic inspections mandatory on lakefront and island properties since in the past the majority of waterfront property owners did not volunteer for inspections that the township has run in the past.

Councilor John Purdon suggested looking to the Tay Valley approach, which is to make septic inspection mandatory on certain lakes. Council agreed to ask staff to update them as to where the process currently stands.

Clock ticks down on Parham Library

After considerable discussion councilors passed two motions concerning the likelihood that the Parham Library will become homeless as of July 1 with the closure of Hinchinbrooke Public School. The library is currently located in a portable at he school. Council decided to place an ad looking for property owners in the Parham area who might be interested in offering a space to house the library while council tries to find a long term solution. The space would have to meet library board guidelines. Council also directed staff to make a request to the KFLA library board that if the Parham Library closes on July 1, its operating hours (six per week) be kept available should a suitable location be found in the future.

New QR Codes and WIFI in CF

Mayor Janet Gutowski briefed council on the idea of using QR (quick response) codes in the township saying that they are a “quick and progressive way of providing information to visitors to the area.” She said there is a plan to use the codes to promote points of interest on the Sharbot Lake Historical Walking Tour. The codes would be located on small signs and they can be scanned by cameras or cell phones and information can be gained by plugging the code into the township website. “It's environmental, high tech and a way of getting information out there inexpensively, and we thought it might attract attention from a different demographic,” she said.

On that same note, Gutowski reported that North Frontenac Telephone Company will be once again providing free WIFI at Oso beach this summer. Plans have gone ahead and apparently the entire beach and beyond will offer free WIFI to visitors this summer.

“This should help to support tourism in the area with no cost to the township, ” she said.

Renaming Road 38

Councilors weighed on the City of Kingston’s proposal to rename Road 38 in their jurisdiction. Regarding how council might address that issue, most were in favor of not changing the name of the road, giving reasons like address changes and driver confusion that would result from a name change.

Council votes Yes to 1-year terms for county warden

Council agreed to support the county in a motion to make the position of county warden a one-year term. “We have to think of the repercussions as a result of what has happened at county council and the difficulty they are having in getting things done there. Traditionally, for 150 years, wardens have served for a one-year term and I think we should support that. If a warden gets appointed for a second term by county council, fine, but I think we should support this motion.” said Councilor Frances Smith.

The majority of council agreed with Smith.

North Frontenac Council completed a long budget process last Friday, leaving ratepayers on the hook for a 7% increase in the amount the township will be levying to ratepayers to pay for local services.

The budget took several months to finalise in 2013 because North Frontenac was the first Council in the region to complete a comprehensive asset management and 10-year capital replacement plan.

Waterfront property owners, who have seen a major increase in property assessment once again this year, will pay the lion’s share of the increase.

The local tax rate in North Frontenac is only up marginally, less than 2%, with the rest of the increase coming from a 5% average increase in property assessment. The increase in local taxes will be offset for North Frontenac ratepayers by education and county taxes, which are not going up this year.

A public meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 29 at 9 am. The budget will be presented and comments received at that time. It is anticipated that the budget will be approved, pending the completion of the Frontenac County budget process on April 29.

Solid Waste Annual Report

Guy Laporte of AECON presented a brief review of the monitoring of the township’s waste disposal sites. He reported on 10 sites. Five of them are closed, but the Ministry of the Environment still requires ongoing monitoring of surface and ground water for several years after a site has been closed.

LaPorte said that although there had been a slight improvement in diversion/recycling since 2011, much more could be done. He particularly listed clean lumber, scrap metal and e-waste as bulky items that should not be going into landfill, and supported the plan to charge more realistic fees for loads brought to the landfills. 

All township landfills have issues: Loughborough is working to resolve a groundwater problem, and Portland has agreed to work on water level management, partial capping, and obtaining weigh scales to help establish fair and consistent fees.

On the positive side, better grading and compacting procedures have already helped extend Green Bay’s capacity somewhat.

Naming of Roads

Planner Mills asked Council’s direction in setting a procedure for selecting names for new roads and lanes. Recently one lane with a somewhat ambiguous name has had their sign stolen and replaced twice. Mills recommended drawing up a list of possible names that would not duplicate present names, should not be names of living persons, and should not connote any topic that would cause sign theft. There was general agreement, though Councilor Vandewal said that sometimes a particular road might have an historical reason for a name not on the list.

Council Compensation Review

After some discussion, Council decided to follow a suggestion from the Corporate Services Review Committee, to establish a four-person citizen committee to review the method of compensating members of Council. Presently, Council members get an established honorarium, and are paid separately for meetings attended. There are other expenses related to fax and computer use, which may need to be updated and made more consistent. The township will advertise for applications from potential committee members.

Trailer “Creep”?

CAO Orr reported that staff has been getting many complaints about unlicensed trailers in the Township. These complaints usually come from residents who have been paying their annual license fee, but they are not prepared to reveal where the offending trailers are located. Orr said that the last trailer inventory was done in 2001, and there is bound to have been some degree of ‘trailer creep’ since then.

(Since amalgamation, the Township has technically prohibited the establishment of trailers on private residential properties, with the exception that a trailer may be used temporarily during the construction of a residence. Such a trailer must pay an annual licensing fee, and must be removed once construction is completed. Enforcement of the prohibition has been postponed at least twice: in 2009, Council extended the date for compliance to 2015, saying that until then, all existing trailers must be inspected by Public Health in order to be granted a license, and no new trailers are to be situated in the township ‘on an ongoing basis’, other than in a designated trailer park.)

Several councilors seemed in agreement with Vandewal when he said: “This is an example of creating a by-law we can’t enforce. Nobody has the appetite to say ‘pull them all.’ This by-law hasn’t been created right, or carried out right.”

Even though a climate of acrimony and mistrust has become entrenched at Frontenac County Council in recent months, the decision that council made last week to defer their budget deliberations until May 2 is hard to understand.

The budget was on the agenda last week, but before the agenda was approved, Councilor Jones from Frontenac Islands put forward a motion of censure against Warden Janet Gutowski and CAO Liz Savill for not calling a special meeting regarding the budget and for filling up the council agenda with “fluff and bubble” delegations.

The County Deputy Clerk Jeanette Amini, did not see how the motion of censure fit with the rules of the Ontario Municipal Act. A motion was put to Council to remove the budget from the meeting's agenda and send it to a special meeting.

David Jones seemed to be saying that the budget was the number one priority of the County. Treasurer Marian VanBruinessen had pointed out in a report to Council that the local townships as well as the City of Kingston need the budget as soon as possible to finalise their spending plans for the year. The Municipal Act requires upper tier municipalities to have a budget in place by the end of March. Why then would anyone vote to put the whole off for another two weeks?

Instead, virtually everything else on the agenda could have been deferred. Sure enough, with the budget off the agenda, Council proceeded to spend several hours last Wednesday debating the fine points of proposed amendments to their procedural bylaw.

The procedural bylaw may not be fluff and bubble, but neither is it a pressing matter.

The upshot of all this is that by the time Frontenac County Council sits down on May 2, six weeks will have passed from the time they rejected, without explanation, a budget that called for a decrease of 0.34 per cent in the amount of money to be levied from ratepayers.

When the budget was rejected back in March, two things did not happen. Council did not give any instructions to staff regarding changes they needed to see in the budget in order to support it, and they also did not ask for a special budget meeting. This was a failing of the council, not of the warden or the CAO.

The document they will see on May 2 is the identical document they rejected.

I have spoken to three of the five members of council who voted against the budget in March. They each had their own reasons. One was concerned about the cost of running Fairmount Home; one was concerned about county reserve funds;, and one was concerned that the county overspends on everything that it does.

These are all legitimate concerns. However it is hard to see how they will be addressed on May 2.

It is more likely that council will simply cut some of the budget lines on that day without considering the financial and operational implications.

But that would not be a demonstration of good governance.

It would be better, in the time between now and May 2, if members of council did some homework, asked for clarification about the budget numbers from the treasurer in advance of the meeting, and came in with something to offer to the process.

Arlene Seale lives in a picturesque house on a tiny peninsula on Loughborough Lake. She is presently engaged in a dispute with South Frontenac Township that is going to the Ontario Municipal Board, and one thing that all the combatants in the dispute would agree on is that the house could never be built today.

The front, back, and west sides of the house are all located a few feet from the water, and as waterfront property owners throughout Eastern Ontario are certainly aware of, no new construction is permitted within 30 metres of any lake in the region. This has been the case in South Frontenac ever since the township approved its first Official Plan in 2001.

All of those waterfront homes that were built before 2001 were given a special status by municipal planning departments. They were given the logic-twisting status of “legal-non conforming”. That means that the homes are legal, although they do not conform to the comprehensive zoning bylaw of the township. The only time that this becomes an issue for the properties' owners is when they want to renovate. Putting in additions, new decks, etc. has been difficult or impossible because the new construction would be located within 30 metres of the water.

The only exceptions have been cases where a deck or a section of a home are being replaced, and in those cases the planning departments typically insists that the new construction remain within the ‘footprint’ of what it is replacing, to minimise potential run-off into the lake.

It does not take long when looking at an overhead photo of Arlene Seale’s property to figure out that she would have trouble getting approval for any new construction.

Arlene Seale tried to do just that in 2011. Her husband had just died in late November of 2010 after an extended illness, and she wanted to make a change to the house because the most commonly used doorway, the one facing the driveway, had a runoff problem from the roof. This meant flooding in the spring and danger from falling snow in the winter.

In order to rectify the problem, Seale wanted to either put in a garage at that location, or close off the porch with a small addition/mudroom at the side of her house.

Alan Revill, then the township's chief building official, met with Seale in February of 2012.

The porch was 17ft. by 7ft. and the new construction was slated to be 15ft. by 7ft.

According to Seale, Revill told her that she could not build the garage but closing off the porch would be acceptable. As well, she said that Revill also informed her that since the new construction was less than 108 square feet, a building permit would not be required.

So, in June, Arlene Seale’s son began building the addition.

As he was working on the project, Krista Johnston, a building inspector with the township, paid a visit and asked why construction was going on without a building permit.

The construction was halted on the spot, and Arlene Seale called the township. The very next day she met with Lindsay Mills, the township’s planner.

At this point, Arlene Seale says that she did not know that there may be zoning issues in her case.

“Lindsay Mills told me that Alan Revill had retired and he would have to contact him to confirm my story. I thought he was the new building official. I did not know he was the township’s planner. I showed him the picture of the house the way it looked and had drawn in the enclosure,” said Arlene Seale.

A little over a month later, on July 17, 2012, Lindsay Mills called Searle back, and according to her he confirmed that Alan Revill had approved the construction.

“I asked Lindsay Mills to put it in writing, but that never happened” Seale said.

Arlene Seale went ahead and built her extension.

Then earlier this year, she received a letter from the township’s lawyer ordering her to remove the structure because it was constructed without approval.

In one of his emails to Arlene Seale, Lindsay Mills put forward his own understanding of the phone conversation the two had engaged in on July 17, 2012.

“I wanted to emphasize the point that you and I initially

met in my office and later, on July 17, 2012, I left a message with you that the Planning Department would only support construction of an attached uncovered deck a maximum of six feet out from the cottage and extending the full width of the cottage. I specified that nothing more than this would be permitted.”

Mills did delay the demolition order so that Arlene Seale could apply to the township's Committee of Adjustment for a minor variance to allow the construction, even though the process normally requires that a minor variance be received before construction commences and not after it is completed.

However, Lindsay Mills also told Seale that he would be recommending that the committee reject her application for a minor variance.

“I have determined that you would be requesting approval for a setback of approximately 6 metres on two sides whereas the required setback is 30 metres …

I should tell you that these policies and provisions would not support your application and, thus, I would recommend denial of the application. It is not minor and it does not meet the intent of the Official Plan or zoning by-law. Consequently I would not regard it as appropriate development,” he wrote.

Seale did apply for a minor variance nonetheless, and received supportive documentation from both the Cataraqui Region Conservation Agency and the Public Health.

Nonetheless the application was rejected by the committee on August 8.

She described the committee hearing as “non-transparent and unprofessional”, and said that while other applicants were given an opportunity to speak as soon as members of council were finished “I had to ask for an opportunity to speak.”

An appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board has been filed, and if the board decides to hear the case it will likely be three months before a hearing can be arranged.

Letter from Weslemkoon Association re land claim

Council received for information a letter from the Weslemkoon Association, which asserts that the Canada and Ontario negotiating teams have failed to consult with non-Algonquin residents regarding the Algonquin land claim.

The letter also asserts that the land claim provides unlimited fishing and unlimited hunting on Crown Land for Algonquins. This position is countered by land claim negotiators who state that fishing and hunting are inherent rights for Aboriginals and are not subject to the land claim negotiations.

The Weslemkoon Association asked that the federal and provincial governments commit to the appointment of an independent negotiator whose “responsibility will be to represent the interest of non-Algonquins, including members of the [Weslemkoon Association] affected by the land claim.”

Telcom phone service 

Council has agreed to contract phone service from Telcom, a re-seller out of Barrie. Telcom says it can save 36% off the current cost for phone service for the township in the coming year, a savings of over $7,000. For their efforts, Telcom will receive 50% of the “verified monthly savings” for a term of 18 months.

He said what? 

Deputy Mayor Bill Cox made reference to an article in the Frontenac News (August 15, 2013), which quoted North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton saying, “We are being held hostage for fire protection by another council, whom I might add we are subsidizing."

The statement was in reference to a decision by Addington Highlands Council not to send out warning letters to residents who defy burn bans. The decision affects North Frontenac because the two townships have joint responsibility for the Barrie/Kaladar Fire Department.

“If we are being subsidized I'd like to know how much,” said Cox, “and then I'd like to tell him that I appreciate it.”

Tanglewood Marina 

Because of contaminated recycled bins (i.e. containing non-recyclable items) the township is gong to refuse to accept waste in large bins they gave to Tanglewood Marina on Weslemkoon Lake years go. They are asking for the return of the 96 litre bins and will provide Tanglewood with 12 small blue box bins instead in the hopes this will alleviate the problem. The township is billed $200 by its recycling contractor when the recycling stream is contaminated with garbage.